Israel weather is Mediterranean at large, mainly due to the country’s position in the eastern Mediterranean and the great impact the subtropical humidity of the Levant has on its patterns. However, as Israel is also situated near an area characterized by its subtropical aridity, weather in some parts of the country experience rather arid conditions, altitude and latitude being the other two determining factors of the noticeable weather fluctuation between different regions. As a whole though, summers in Israel are long, hot and dry and winters significantly shorter in comparison and characteristically cool and rainy.

With temperatures usually varying between 5 C to 10 C January is the coldest month of the year and August the hottest its lows registering somewhere near the 18 C and its heights rising to a sizzling 38 C. Summer is a rather rainless time in Israel as the bulk of the rain – around 70 percent – falls between November and March. However rainfall variation is also noticeable in different parts of the country, its levels dropping sharply towards the southern end of the country. As a matter of fact variation in rain is so immense that the north part of Israel receives on average 1,128 millimeters of rainfall per year, in the extreme south precipitation levels drop to a paltry 100 millimeters annually!

Rainfalls are often the result of violent storms and as such can cause erosion and flooding. During January and February rain turns to snow, falling mainly at the higher elevations of the central highlands, including Jerusalem.