Yesterday's Spring Storm Continues into Shabbat

I thought yesterday's Spring storm would peter-out in the evening. But no, when I awoke in the morning it was still raining, a cold wind was blowing, and deep puddles stood everywhere in Mitzpe Ramon. Throughout the afternoon the rain continued falling, sometimes quite hard. I would estimate the temperature in the 40s, wind chill in the 30s, with the wind blowing and gusting strongly out of the west. Several times during the day local streets were flooded with water runoff.

Satellite image on Saturday, 3/27/10 @ 4:00 AM

I later found out from Hanny at the 'neto that Route 40 between Sede Boquer and Mitzpe Ramon was closed from flooding several times during the day as the Wadis overflowed the road. I would estimate about two inches of rain fell over the 24 hours of the storm. Mitzpe Ramon's average annual rainfall is about 3.4 inches, which means we received about 2/3rds of our annual rainfalll in just one day. This is in addition to the 6+ inches of rain that have already fallen this year. During the earlier Winter rains in January, Mitzpe Ramon received more rain during one 48 hour period than had fallen altogether in the past 10 years. It has, indeed been a wet year, resulting in lots of desert flowers this Spring.

Desert flowers have bloomed in great numbers in this very wet year.

 

The Storm of the Century

On the evening of Sunday, January 17 and continuing through the next day, the Negev saw summer thunderstorms not seen in over 100 years. In one 24 hour period 6.5 inches of rain fell, more than had fallen on the Negev in preceding 10 years altogether.

The storm began as we headed back to Mitzpe Ramon from Be'er Sheva in the early evening. As we drove south the sky began to darken with clouds, and as night fell, the horizon was lit with almost continuous flashes of lightning all around us. The air began to smell of rain and suddenly it was gushing all around us. These weren't just drops but spikes of rain, long and thick and punishing as they fell. Lightning flashed all around us, as thick as a wrist before my eyes, and thunder crashed all about.

I began to fear that we might encounter a flash flood in a Wadi that would wash away the road. But the presence of a car on the road ahead of us, a bolder driver than I, gave me confidence to continue. At least he would hit the swollen Wadi first and I could stop in time from being washed away.

Fortunately, we encountered no such overflowing Wadis that night. But by the next day, drivers were not so fortunate. The road between Sde Boker and Mitzpe Ramon was flooded in many places, and in one case the rains had washed away a portion of the highway and completely crushed the guard rail at that point in the road. Several drivers were washed away and killed in the floods, and at least one driver had to be rescued from his flood-stranded truck by helicopter.

 

 A cloud to ground lightning strike develops over Machtesh Ramon

 The lightning illuminates the clouds and far side of the Machtesh

Climax of the stroke. The river that drains the Machtesh can be seen reflecting the stroke's light.

This cloud to cloud stroke illuminates the north face of the crater:

  

 

Stroke climax

The storm developed just 3 days after a national day of fasting and prayer to appeal to the Almighty to bring rain to a drought parched Israel.

Desert Rain

Rainfall this year in Israel has been a paltry thing. In fact, rain has been so scarce that the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Omar, has declared tomorrow, Thursday the 28th of Tevet 5770, a public fast day. The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is running very low. When we were there in 2007 the water level was already alarmingly low, with the water far from what used to be the shores of the sea.

We did experience a few days of rain in Mitzpe Ramon this year, with enough to create run off into some of the wadis in the area. On our way to Be'er Sheva during this period we were aboard a Metropolitan highway bus that gave us this view of a swollen wadi just outside of Mitzpe Ramon.

Rain swollen wadi outside of Mitzpe Ramon

The bus had no problem fording it, but some smaller cars had to turn back.

Our bus fords a rain-swollen wadi outside of Mitzpe Ramon

As our bus reached the lowest part of the road the water suddenly became quite high, moving with great speed. I could finally understand the warning signs that appear over these low points in the road, alerting unknowing travelers to the dangers of sudden rain fall in dry river beds.

Traversing the road crossing this wadi, the water suddenly turned into a gushing torrent over 4 feet deep.

When the rain stops and the running water ceases, what remains are extended pools of water that spread out like wide bogs or marshes. It will be interesting to see what grows here in the spring.

A desert bog after winter rain