Israel sees highest January temperature in 66 years

The Israel Meteorological Service said it recorded the highest January temperature in 65 years on Thursday, amid unseasonably warm winter weather that is expected to give way to low temperatures, strong winds and heavy rain.

According to the weather service, the temperature measured at a station in Kibbutz Ein Hahoresh, in the Sharon region north of Tel Aviv, reached 29 degrees Celsius (84° Fahrenheit) on Thursday — the highest since a temperature of 31°C (88°F) was measured at the kibbutz on January 15, 1960.

Other stations today in the northern West Bank and Jerusalem mountains also recorded unusually warm temperatures of around 27°-28°C (80°-82°F), the weather service said.

Regular winter weather is expected to return on Friday morning, according to the service, which issued warnings of strong winds and floods across the country.

The Mediterranean coast will see gusts of up to 90 kilometers an hour (56 mph), and there will be a heightened risk of floods along the coast of the Dead Sea and in the north of the Negev desert, the weather service said.

During a rainy spell earlier this month, emergency services rescued four people who got stuck in two separate flooded rivers.