As storm of the decade winds down, Jerusalemites play in the snow

Traffic police shut down Route 1 on Thursday morning between the Ben Shemen interchange and the Sakharov Gardens, at the entrance to the capital, due to dangerous road conditions.

Traffic was originally diverted to Route 443, where road conditions were dangerous, as well, and police also shut down that road from Shilat Junction to the capital at around 7:30 a.m.

Sections of Routes 1 and 443, the two main arteries connecting the capital with Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region, were also shut down on Wednesday due to severe road conditions.

Derech Haminharot, also known as the Tunnels Road, remained closed between Jerusalem and Tzur Hadassah. The road is the main connector between the capital and the Gush Etzion settlement bloc to the southeast.

Egged, the capital’s main bus company, said it would not run its buses in or to Jerusalem, citing dangerous road conditions. It said it would restart service on main roads only at some point before noon.

The city’s light rail, which is temporarily shut down due to a technical issue, will continue to give free rides until 2 p.m. according to operator Citipass.

The Jerusalem municipality decided early Thursday that schools and kindergartens would be closed throughout the capital so as not to endanger students.

School was also canceled in the northern Golan Heights, for all areas north of and including the town of Keshet.

Students in Safed, Maalot Tarshiha, and in the Northern Galilee and Merom HaGalil Regional Councils will be staying home, as well.

In the West Bank, school was canceled in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, in Elon Moreh, Itamar and Kfar Tapuah, among other areas.

Schools were also canceled in Dimona, Arad and the Tamar regional council, near the Dead Sea.

Schools will operate as scheduled in the areas of Tel Aviv and Haifa.

The Education Ministry has opened a situation room to help get information out to parents regarding school closures. The hotline number is (02) 622-2211.

The Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main source of freshwater, rose 14 centimeters in the last 24 hours, bringing its total to nearly 70 centimeters since the storm began on Friday, Israel’s Water Authority said.

Southern Israel may be thought of as a dry, arid wilderness, but on Wednesday night it transformed into a landscape that would make the Abominable Snowman feel at home.

Snowfall was recorded overnight in Dimona, Mitzpeh Ramon, the Ramat Hanegev area and around Sdeh Boker.

Jerusalem’s courts announce that all deliberations have been called off for the day, and only emergency arraignments and arrests will be processed at the capital’s Magistrate’s Court.

It seems that what’s been holding up Jerusalem’s light rail is a collapsed structure on Jaffa Road in the center of town. A municipal team is hard at work clearing the tracks.

Aside from sloshing through the snow with sodden shoes, and with Egged bus service called off for the nonce, the light rail, which will be giving out free rides till 2 p.m., should be one of the only solid methods for getting around — once the tracks are clear.

Since “snow in Jerusalem” is shorthand for “everything in the country grinds to a halt so we can all go play outside,” you can expect Knesset members and politician wannabes to adhere to an unofficial truce of sorts — even with the elections less than a fortnight away.

“Snow news is good news,” as the truism goes.

Thus, our political correspondent, Raphael Ahren, is free to roam the land and report on a whole new set of shady characters. Take this snowman, for instance (what is that thing on his head?):

In case you were wondering, here’s how Israel’s heaviest storm in decades is predicted to play out over the next few days.

The snow and rain that have been flooding and dusting the country, respectively, since last Friday, are expected to abate toward late Thursday afternoon — that’s today, folks.

Until then, you can expect scattered showers in the lowlands and on-again, off-again flurries in more elevated areas.

And yes, even without precipitation, the weekend air will still be quite nippy.

Jerusalemites may be many things, but they are not experienced snowman builders. The snowfall has given them a chance to hone their skills, though with mixed results.

At the Western Wall, you can stick a black hat on any old lump of snow and it will count for a minyan of 10 men.

This center-city snow rabbit proves you don’t need hands to hold a beer. With a cup for a nose, and little else, the bunny is about as clothed, and goofy, as the more traditional kind of snow bunny.

The slightly anorexic looking creation seen below wears a crown of thorns and is either chomping on a massive cigar or has been telling a lot of lies, which is likely how he snagged these three ladies.

Nothing brings in the customers like a Jabba the Hut snowman.

The Jerusalem Municipality is announcing a whopping, alpine-esque 15-20 centimeters (6-8 inches) of snow in the capital. That may be an exaggeration, at least here in the German Colony.

Maybe municipal officials went to class with that lady from the Likud ads? We kid, we kid.

Route 90 has reopened in the area of the Bezek stream, south of Beit She’an. The road had been closed for three days due to flooding.

Now Israelis have another route to take them straight to the traffic jams leading to Mount Hermon.

While some Jerusalemites were busy building grotesque snowpeople (and -bunnies and -Jabba the Huts) and pelting perfect strangers with snowballs, others were putting the finishing touches on this well-endowed piece of work, a monument to the M75.

The Hamas-made long-range rocket’s claim to fame was that it was fired indiscriminately toward Jerusalem and Tel Aviv during Operation Pillar of Defense in November.

Why yes, it does appear to be on the Temple Mount.

Did we mention that several of the M75s fired from Gaza landed near Palestinian population centers?

AP reports:

A Gaza health official says a Palestinian man was electrocuted after being struck by a power cable snapped loose by ferocious winter winds. Ashraf al-Kidra says the 24-year-old died late Wednesday in the accident, which left four others injured. While heavy rains have subsided, wind gusts continue to wreak havoc with the territory’s electrical supply, and power has been cut off this week for up to 14 hours a day.

This just in: The Tiberias Marathon is taking place today despite the heavy weather. Runners have been at it since 9 a.m.

Let’s hope the Sea of Galilee waits a couple hours before it rises another two meters.

A bus carrying IDF soldiers was swept away by a flooded stream on Route 222 between Tze’elim and Revivim in the northern Negev. Rescue crews extracted the soldiers from the bus and were working to get the vehicle out of the water. Police closed the road.

While it’s a truth universally acknowledged that snow in Jerusalem is fine and dandy, what really puts this storm in a league of its own is the fact that flurries reached places that very rarely get a taste of such meteorological phenomena.

Take Dimona, for instance, which is located only 600 meters (2,000 feet) above sea level in the middle of Israel’s Negev Desert. Here’s the footage (the disembodied finger spells it out for us in Hebrew on the windshield — s-n-o-w):

Yippee! The Jerusalem light rail is up and running.

Now’s the time for denizens of the capital who aren’t liveblogging the storm to cash in on their free ride(s) and get a good look at the City of Gold’s white blanket from a moving vehicle — the only kind currently suited to negotiate the slushy streets at a reasonable speed.

Buses are still grounded.

Motorists who must, must reach the capital and are discouraged by the fact that Route 1 is closed still have several options at their disposal. For one thing, the train from Tel Aviv is running more often than usual — once an hour instead of every other hour.

We assume the train offers a breathtaking ride through the virgin snow in the hills leading up to the city.

Still, Israel Railways wants you to keep in mind that there may be delays due to the weather.

Another option is Route 443, which offers vehicular access to the capital, although the road is still closed in the opposite direction.

President Peres takes a break from making profound pronouncements about the peace process and how history is not like a horse to engage in the mitzvah of the day — snowman-building.

This one looks to be rocking a jaunty monocle. Such a hipster, our president.

We would be remiss if we didn’t share with you this gorgeous picture of a snowclad Western Wall plaza early Thursday morning, sent in by reader Mike Horton.

The relentless downpours have added 69 centimeters to the level of the Sea of Galilee since the weekend, including a rise of 14 centimeters in the last 24 hours, the Israel Water Authority says.

Amir Givati, Director of Surface Water at the Hydrological Service of the Water Authority, tells The Times of Israel’s Stuart Winer that it all adds up to an estimated 100 million cubic meters of water.

And even if the rain is on the way out for the time being, the level of the lake is going to keep rising for a while due to snowmelt, Givati says.

Read the full story here.

It appears that Route 443 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv via Modi’in has reopened for both Jerusalem- and Tel Aviv-bound traffic. Route 1 remains closed.

Forget the picture of the snow-missile on the Temple Mount that we posted earlier. Here’s a much more wholesome take on how the snow is affecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Brian Reeves writes on Facebook:

“Last night I was walking through Jerusalem and saw a group of Hareidis engaged in a cordial snowball fight with Arabs. Police were deployed, but when they got to the scene and realized everyone was just having fun they stood back, and laughed and conversed with the other spectators. Israeli Snowpocalypse 2013: Totally Worth It.”