Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms

        The Red Sea Trough unleashed its most destructive power on October 17-18, when multiple supercells were the cause of 13 deaths, and dozens of people were injured, in Israel alone. Egypt and Jordan reported damages and casualties as well.

    The scenario: during the previous days, the Red Sea Trough was approaching Israel. On October 16 it reached Israel, and a few local thunderstorms occured, nothing big. On that day, the center of the trough, which extended all the way from Saudi Arabia to Israel, reached the Mediterranean Sea. A low pressure area formed right on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. A cold front developed in the sea west from Israel. Southerly winds brought great humidity to southern and eastern Israel, which are desert areas. Temperatures in Jerusalem were 31 C, much higher than normal. In Eilat (southern Israel) temperatures were 37 C.

    The forecast for October 17 was local afternoon rain and thunderstorms in eastern and southern Israel, and a chance for localized floodings. As the day progressed, the low pressure came very close to Israel, as well as the cold front, much earlier than expected. The presence of cold air behind the front and extremely hot and humid air ahead of it, caused a much more devastating effect than what was forecasted.

    By 13:30, a single cell developed in western Jordan, east of Jerusalem. I watched it rise in the clear skies, as it turned to a large cumulunimbus with an overshooting top. After 30 minutes cumulus clouds which developed around it made the Cb disappear from view. I couldn't get information about the features of the storm since it was in Jordan, but I could see it was severe. By then, the Meteorological Service in Israel issued a severe storm warning and flash flood warning for southern, eastern and central Israel, Jerusalem included.
 

 

    The Meteorological Service now began to warn people travelling in the desert areas of flash floods and severe weather. People in Israel are not used to severe weather, and most of them did not heed the warnings. It was the weekend, and many hikers and tourists were in the dangerous areas.

    In 16:00, out of nowhere, towers began to explode all around me. I was in eastern Jerusalem at that time, with a great view both south and north. The winds started to pick up, and I knew the cold front is coming. This was the moment when the cool air from the Mediterranean collided with the extremely hot air coming from the Red Sea - the temperature difference was huge: 41 Celsius ahead of the front, and 22 behind it. Just a few minutes later, I was gazing at a straight north-south line of massive updrafts, starting at the Sinai Peninsula (some 700 km to the south) and reaching about a 100 km north of Jerusalem. I took some great pictures and videos of the updrafts which were completely vertical, and by 16:30 I saw 3 of them developing a cumuliform anvil. Reports coming in from Eilat in southern Israel confirmed that storms have developed in their area as well. The 3 storms around me developed even more, with a mesocyclone in each one. The sun had already set, and light was diminishing quickly. I decided to leave the area and return home, as chasing was almost impossible because of the darkness and the floodings of the roads.

    October 18 was as stormy as the previous day, but I had no chance of chasing, because every road leading south was blocked by the floods. So all I could do was take pictures from my window and listen to the news.

    The human casualties and injuries were high, mainly because the travellers didn't take the warnings too seriously.

    Here is the complete damage report for October 17-18 in Israel: Several supercells which developed in both October 17 and 18 caused incredible amounts of rain in the Judean Desert, Negev Desert and Arava. The annual rainfall average in these regions is no more than 50 milimiters (2 inches), so the heavy rain caused the usually dry streams to overflow, and floodings occured. 30 hikers were trapped in the Qumran stream in the Judean Desert. Seeing the heavy rain, they took shelter in the caves along the stream. But a sudden wave of water swept one of them down a gorge 150 meters deep, and killed her. The others spent the night in the caves, until help arrived.

    A car was swept away by a sudden flood near Ein Gedi, and 3 people died, 3 others were injured. 6 more died in another car swept by the flood. In eastern Jerusalem a young boy disappeared in a flooding stream. More than 80 hikers in the Negev area were rescued by helicopters, after being trapped by sudden floods.

    In Be'er Sheva, an incredible hail storm caused 32 injuries. The hail accumulated to over a foot deep. Wind gusts knocked down hundreds of trees, and destroyed many roofs. The hail storm moved west towards Gaza, and caused great damage there. A microburst over Eilat dropped 27 milimiters (1 inch) of rain in a few hours, comparing to the annual average rainfall of only 32 milimiters (1.28 inches). A supercell in Ze'elim in the Negev caused about 75% of the trees in the area to be knocked down. Winds gusted up to 100 kmh. In Sinai more than 7,000 travellers were stranded. Damages were estimated at millions of dollars.