From Fire to Flood: Gishmei Brachah Finally Arrive in Israel

After facing fire just a week ago, many places in Israel on Friday were undergoing flooding, as the promised major winter storm dumped large amounts of precipitation on nearly the entire country. Heavy rain fell throughout Thursday night in almost all parts of the country north of Be’er Sheva, and those rains are set to move down south during the day Friday.

The Water Authority recorded precipitation of 100 millimeters in the 24 hour period between 6 a.m. Thursday and Friday, and up to 80 millimeters in most parts of the north and center of the country. 20 centimeters of snow fell on the upper reaches of the Chermon, where temperatures dipped to below two degrees centigrade. The Kinneret, meanwhile rose 2.5 centimeters during that period.

Power failures were reported in several areas, including in Tel Aviv and Eilat, where high tension wires were downed by the very high winds that blew the storm into the region Thursday. There were also reports of flooding in parts of Tel Aviv and Haifa, as well as flash flooding in Negev streams.

The storm is expected to weaken later Friday, although it will leave behind lower than usual temperatures. Things should clear out later Shabbos afternoon. By Sunday, temperatures should be back to seasonal levels, forecasters said.