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Palestine rain totals today9/19/2023 Most of the rain-bearing cold lows (barometric depressions) arriving or forming in the eastern Mediterranean during the rainfall season are situated in the northeastern part of this sea (the "Cyprus Low"). Like every country with a Mediterranean climate Israel also lies near the limit of the cyclonic rains. Israel is situated on the boundary of two different climatic regions: its northern half belongs to the southern part of a region having the so-called "Mediterranean" type of climate, whose main feature is that the greatest part of the annual rainfall occurs during the moderately cold winter months, while in the warm summer practically no rain falls the southern half of Israel, the Negev, is situated on the northern boundary of a hot desert. As for rain intensities, there are various expressions for slight, moderate, and heavy rains in the Bible (e.g., I Kings 18:45 Ezek. The dates of the beginning and end of the rainfall season in Israel also fit modern conditions (Ta'an. Even a forecast for the rainfall of a whole year is given in the Jerusalem Talmud (Ta'an. On the same page in the Babylonian Talmud a weather forecast is given by R. 9b) the ragged fragments of low clouds, known as scud (nautical term) or stratus fractus (meteorological term), often moving rapidly below rain clouds, indicate rainy weather (which is also the case today). Papa determined that thin clouds under thick clouds are a sign of rainfall ( ibid. Perata paid attention to the variations from year to year in both amounts and times of rain occurrence (Ta'an. Interannual variability of rainfall amount, as a percentage of the average for the period 1921/22–1950/51. The following references are examples of keen observations In the Mishnah there is a quantitative definition of drought (Ta'an, 3:1). Rain is referred to on many occasions in the Talmud and midrashic literature, particularly in tractate Ta'anit (Mishnah, Tosefta, and the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds). Similarly, three consecutive drought years in the region of Samaria are as rare and notable in the last 50 years of rainfall measurements (1931/32, 1932/33, and 1933/34) as they were at the time of Elijah and Ahab (I Kings 18:1). Late and strong rains at the beginning of June are as rare and notable nowadays as they were at the time of Samuel (I Sam. An impressive description of the results of droughts is available in Jeremiah 14:1–6. Rainfall, expressed in Ereẓ Israel particularly at the beginning and end of the rainfall season, is also mentioned (Amos 4:7 cf. 34:26), sometimes with special emphasis on the first and last rains of the season (the yoreh and the malkosh) whose importance for agriculture is particularly great (Deut. The importance of a normal rainfall regime, i.e., an appropriate seasonal distribution of rainfall, for the success of agricultural crops is clearly stated in the Bible on several occasions (Lev. This correspondence not only shows the keen observations of weather phenomena made in ancient times, but also indicates that during the last 3,000 years there were fluctuations but not fundamental changes in the climate of Israel. In comparing these quotations with modern knowledge of rainfall in Israel it is evident that although part of the quotations are in the realm of folklore, many of them are valid and correspond to contemporarily measured data, although the descriptions of rain in the Bible and talmudic literature are mainly qualitative. The large number of quotations referring to rain in the biblical and talmudic sources may be attributed to the fact that rain is the most important climatic element for the agriculture of Israel, particularly in non-irrigated areas. NWS Precipitation Image overlays are provided by the National Weather Service. USGS rain-gage data shown in the table are available at Water Data for the Nation : Current North Carolina Precipitation
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