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- Apr 9, 2002
Jeruslaem Post
blanketed by rare snowstorm
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Etgar Lefkovits Feb. 25, 2003
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A rare winter snowstorm dumped about 30 cm. (one foot) of snow on Jerusalem on Tuesday, closing businesses and schools and bringing life in a whitened capital to a virtual standstill.
The Jerusalem Municipality announced that all schools would be closed on Wednesday, due to the weather conditions. There will also be no classes in nearby settlements, including Kochav Ya'akov, Ofra, Shilo, Eli, Ma'aleh Levona and the Binyamin council.
Meteorologists said that the storm, which is expected to strengthen late Tuesday night before petering out in the course of Wednesday as the temperatures rise and the snow turns to rain, was one of the largest and strongest in the last half century.
By the time Israel's blizzard of 2003 ends Wednesday night, nearly 30 cm. of snow are expected to have fallen in Jerusalem, the Israel meteorological service said Tuesday.
Jerusalem residents awoke Tuesday morning to a city blanketed overnight in white, with the strong gusts of wind that had been howling late Monday night replaced by a wintry wonderland, with trees and rooftops covered in white.
As in storms past, Israel's capital was once again an island of its own, disconnected from the rest of the country, with the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway closed for the most of the day. City streets were virtually impassable, with all public transportation to, from, and within Jerusalem canceled, and Jerusalem police urging all residents to just stay home.
City hospitals and the Yad Sarah medical assistance organization operated special jeeps to reach patients in need of medical treatment as well as to ferry surgeons and nurses to hospital.
With all city schools off for the day, children and teens took to the streets and the city parks to build snowmen, and engage in snowball fights. The snow revelers had the streets to their own, with even the plethora of stray city cats nowhere in site.
By early afternoon, police announced that they had reopened the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway in one direction but only for 4X4 vehicles.
As the snow kept falling through the morning, and the weather was the lead news item on all the radio and TV broadcasts, a dull sense of a return to normalcy prevailed, with the ongoing violence of the past two and half years, and the coalition talks momentarily pushed to the sidelines.
The Middle East reality and the impending American war with Iraq resurfaced quickly enough though, even indirectly, with news that gas mask distribution centers in Jerusalem were closed for the day due to the snow.
Foreigners visiting or living in Israel wondered what all the fuss was about, "just because of a measly half a foot of snow" as one former Chicagoan put it.
Municipality officials were left explaining that it was "all right and understandable" to have a day off due to unusually inclement weather.
Some Jeruslamites stuck at home were disappointed to find their TV out of order: the YES cable company was having technical difficulty, affected too by the snow.
blanketed by rare snowstorm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Etgar Lefkovits Feb. 25, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A rare winter snowstorm dumped about 30 cm. (one foot) of snow on Jerusalem on Tuesday, closing businesses and schools and bringing life in a whitened capital to a virtual standstill.
The Jerusalem Municipality announced that all schools would be closed on Wednesday, due to the weather conditions. There will also be no classes in nearby settlements, including Kochav Ya'akov, Ofra, Shilo, Eli, Ma'aleh Levona and the Binyamin council.
Meteorologists said that the storm, which is expected to strengthen late Tuesday night before petering out in the course of Wednesday as the temperatures rise and the snow turns to rain, was one of the largest and strongest in the last half century.
By the time Israel's blizzard of 2003 ends Wednesday night, nearly 30 cm. of snow are expected to have fallen in Jerusalem, the Israel meteorological service said Tuesday.
Jerusalem residents awoke Tuesday morning to a city blanketed overnight in white, with the strong gusts of wind that had been howling late Monday night replaced by a wintry wonderland, with trees and rooftops covered in white.
As in storms past, Israel's capital was once again an island of its own, disconnected from the rest of the country, with the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway closed for the most of the day. City streets were virtually impassable, with all public transportation to, from, and within Jerusalem canceled, and Jerusalem police urging all residents to just stay home.
City hospitals and the Yad Sarah medical assistance organization operated special jeeps to reach patients in need of medical treatment as well as to ferry surgeons and nurses to hospital.
With all city schools off for the day, children and teens took to the streets and the city parks to build snowmen, and engage in snowball fights. The snow revelers had the streets to their own, with even the plethora of stray city cats nowhere in site.
By early afternoon, police announced that they had reopened the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway in one direction but only for 4X4 vehicles.
As the snow kept falling through the morning, and the weather was the lead news item on all the radio and TV broadcasts, a dull sense of a return to normalcy prevailed, with the ongoing violence of the past two and half years, and the coalition talks momentarily pushed to the sidelines.
The Middle East reality and the impending American war with Iraq resurfaced quickly enough though, even indirectly, with news that gas mask distribution centers in Jerusalem were closed for the day due to the snow.
Foreigners visiting or living in Israel wondered what all the fuss was about, "just because of a measly half a foot of snow" as one former Chicagoan put it.
Municipality officials were left explaining that it was "all right and understandable" to have a day off due to unusually inclement weather.
Some Jeruslamites stuck at home were disappointed to find their TV out of order: the YES cable company was having technical difficulty, affected too by the snow.
