The Weather and The Water

Israelis have a national obsession with the weather and the water...it's a topic that dominates our news throughout the year.

The weather comes into play mostly in the winter, but most begins around now, the holiday season.

"Temperatures will drop by one degree Celsius Friday night and Saturday, and the
weather will remain through next Tuesday. The thermometer will begin to rise,
and the long-range forecast calls for slighter warmer than usual temperatures on
Thursday, the first day of the week-long Succot holiday. No precipitation is in
sight."

No precipitation is in sight - thus begins our national obsession with rain. For a country that is water-starved, every drop of rain is precious; every drop of water not to be wasted. Will it rain this winter - enough to fill the Sea of Galilee? Even better, will it rain so much, we will have to open the flood gates and let the water flow freely into the Jordan River to wind its way down and begin replenishing the depleted Dead Sea? It's an ongoing soap opera here!

Soon, we will hear the level of the Sea of Galilee - it is measured daily (and probably several times a day) to determine it's location in relation to a "red line" and the ideal "full" line. We are forever hearing that the sea is so many meters and so many centimeters below this line or above that line.

As the rainy season comes closer (it rains in Israel from around November until March and then usually not a drop - or at least not much more than a drop - from April through October), we all pray this will be a year of abundant rain to fill the rivers and make the land blossom with flowers. Israelis are obsessed with the weather and the water...and also the beautiful flowers the grow wild in the north and around the country during the rainy season.

May it be a year of abundant rain!