Photo by Roee Oz/TPS on 20 December, 2018

Storms and heavy winds spread across country

Weather By TPS   •   20 December, 2018

Jerusalem, 20 December, 2018 (TPS) -- A powerful storm hit Israel Thursday morning, with risk of flash floods in the Jordan Valley, the Judean Desert, and the Dead Sea area and flooding along the coastline and the coastal plain.

The heavy rains rose the  Sea of Galilee level, one of Israel’s main water sources by 1.5 centimeters, according to the Water Authority but water officials continue to warn that the heavy rain will not boost the country out of a serious drought situation.

The national water sector has reached in the last years dangerous levels, symbolized most potently by the Sea of Galilee level, which currently stands at -214.58 meters below sea level, or 5.78 meters below the upper red line, which indicates that the lake is full. Despite the recent rains, the lake is still 1.58 meters below the bottom red line, the point at which ecologists say the lack of water begins to impact the quality of water as well as the ecological balance, and just 29 centimeters above the black level, the lowest water level ever measured in the lake.

Israel suffered a five-year drought, only the third instance of such a prolonged drought in the past 100 years. Other instances occurred in the 1930s and 1950s.