The first Red Sea Trough of the season reached Israel on October 12. The first few days were only hot and partly cloudy, and no real storm developed in Israel. October 14 finally produced a storm very close to Eilat, on the southern tip of Israel, but the center was actually over Sinai (Egypt) so I couldn't chase it. But I knew that the Trough is about to reach its maximum strength, and storms were imminent. Read my chase report (October 12-14).
 

October 16, 1997
Finally, the first 2 storms developed on October 16, above Jerusalem. Though they were brief, the heavy rain flooded the streams in the Judean desert.

12:00
Towering cumulus, looking W over Mevaseret in the Judean Mountains.
 
  
 
15:35
Mammatus under a storm anvil, looking E over Jerusalem.

16:00
Rain from a decaying storm, looking WSW over Jerusalem.
The storm producing this brief heavy rain was the same storm producing the mammatus above.

16:30
A Cb in the background forming under the anvil of the Cb in the foreground. Looking WSW over Jerusalem. The rain from the storm in the foreground (above pictures) helped push a new tower upwards, which within minutes developed to a new Cb. Read my chase report (October 16).

October 17, 1997
October 17 was the day the Red Sea Trough was in its peak. Beautiful yet deadly, huge storms formed in the deserts during the afternoon and evening, bringing destructive weather to Israel, both on October 17 and 18. Read my chase report (October 17-18).
 

13:30
A Cb with an overshooting top forming near the Dead Sea, looking ESE from Jerusalem.
The first sign of what was to come later that day was this cumulonimbus which developed over western Jordan. I couldn't get information about the features of the storm, but I could see it was severe.

16:30
A line of developing severe storms stretching from Eilat to the northern Judean Mountains. Looking S over Jerusalem. These pictures show the development of the supercells. The picture on the right shows one of the towers developing a cumuliform anvil.

These massive updrafts developed into several supercells, which dumped incredible amounts of hail and rain, creating flash floods in many areas of southern, eastern and central Israel. 13 people died from the floods, and 32 people were injured from the hail. Read my chase report for complete damage reports across Israel.

Cumulus congestus, later developing to a supercell. Looking N over Jerusalem. This huge congestus was part of the line of severe storms above.

A new tower rapidly developing to a supercell, a part of the line of severe storms above. Looking ENE over Jerusalem.

The Red Sea Trough reached Israel again on November 10. It was a very active day all over central and eastern Israel. Although severe storms did not develop, 6 different thunderstorms developed in Jerusalem throughout the day. Most of the thunderstorm activity that day was around Jerusalem. Read my chase report.

09:30
Towers were already rising in Jerusalem, much earlier than expected. I spotted this towering cumulus in the horizon. looking WSW from Jerusalem. This tower developed to a hailstorm cumulonimbus 30 minutes later, over Beit Shemesh.

12:30
Developing cluster of towering cumulus, looking ESE over Jerusalem.
This cell was rising under the large anvil of the Cb that developed in the morning. It developed to a short-lived thunderstorm only 15 minutes later.

13:30
Cumulonimbus, Looking ENE over Jerusalem.

15:50
Decaying anvil, looking E over Jerusalem.
This little anvil was all that's left from one of the many thunderstorms that developed in Jerusalem. It was part of the last thunderstorm that formed that day.

A warm front extending from a low pressure system near Greece was the cause of southerly wind flow in Israel on November 22. Isolated cells developed in Jerusalem.

14:00
A cumulonimbus just starting to develop an anvil, looking S over Jerusalem.

15:40
Two distant thunderstorms, probably over the north-eastern Negev Desert. Looking S from Jerusalem.

The spring chasing season finally started as a Red Sea trough was extending from the Sudan low in Africa all the way to Israel. This trough started a week-long heat wave in the Middle-East, which was one of the three longest and hottest heat waves in the last 35 years. Temperatues were in the 40's C almost everywhere, except the mountains. With the heat, the moisture and the instability, something had to give.

April 13

Altocumulus towers and altocumulus castellanus were developing in the Judean mountains and the Negev desert, with light rain from time to time. Temperatures were in the mid-30's in Jerusalem, and high 30's in the Negev. Unfortunately, the promising clouds disappeard by the afternoon. One small altocumulonimbus developed over western Jordan, and large severe thunderstorms developed in Arabia and Egypt along the Red Sea coast. A single thunderstorm was over Sinai. Click here to see the visible satellite image from April 13.

11:30
Altocumulus cell developing in the hot sunshine, looking S over Jerusalem.

15:20
Middle-based thunderstorm (altocumulonimbus) over western Jordan, looking E from eastern Jerusalem.

April 14

13:10
The sky was completely clear everywhere in Israel. But in 12:45 a single towering altocumulus cell developed in SW Jerusalem. In 13:10 more small towers began to shoot around the parent tower. Looking SW over Jerusalem.

14:30
The parent tower and the small towers around it developed a dark flat base, and a small thunderstorm formed. The temperatures were around 32 degrees. Looking S over Jerusalem.

Withing 20 minutes the small thunderstorm started to shoot eastwards a large anvil, which progressed very rapidly ahead of the storm. The storm itself wasn't moving at all. The leading edge of the anvil had nice mammatus.
  

By 16:30 the small altocumulonimbus died, without any severe weather, except CG lightning. The anvil disappeared about an hour later. On the visible satellite image from the afternoon, the single storm can clearly be seen above Jerusalem, while the rest of Israel was sunny. Click here to see the 1000mb map, and the 500mb/vortcity map.

April 15-16

On the night between April 15 and 16 the Red Sea Trough reached it's peak. A desert low (sharav) was near Israel, and the presence of the trough along with the low caused the formation of many severe thunderstorms in Israel and Jordan.
On April 15 in the evening a single thunderstorm developed in the Arava in southern Israel, with local floods. The sharav low warm front passed Israel in 03:00 (between April 15 and 16), which caused the formation of at least 6 huge and severe thunderstorms across Israel and Jordan. Click here to see the 1000mb map, and the 500mb/vortcity map.

03:00 - 04:45
Lightning from one of the severe storms that developed during the early morning. The storm was over eastern Jerusalem, then drifting to the NE and reaching Jordan. 90% of the lightning were CG, which shows the severity of the storm. There was a bolt about every 5 seconds. Click here to see the visible satellite image from the morning of April 16th.