Winter storm to hit Israel early this week

Another round of cold and rainy weather was predicted for the country this week. Rain and unseasonably cold temperatures throughout the country are predicted to last until Wednesday at least, the Israel Meteorological Service said Sunday.

Snow is expected on Israel’s highest mountain, Mount Hermon, on Sunday, but not elsewhere in the country. Police forces, emergency medical services and the Israel Electric Corporation went on high alert on Saturday night ahead of the expected stormy weather. A flood warning was issued for low-lying regions, especially in the Negev desert.

The scale of the storm is not expected to reach the levels seen earlier this month when the region coped with snow, wind and rain that broke century-old records and was termed the “storm of the century.”

In Israel, the extreme weather claimed the lives of four people, left tens of thousands without power and cut off Jerusalem from the rest of the country for days as the main roads to and from the capital were closed off to traffic due to road conditions. The storm also covered Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Galilee and the Golan Heights in centimeters of snow, and caused damage to infrastructure estimated at NIS 1 billion.