Surprise clouds at sunset

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Not just here in the Negev desert, but all over Israel, July has been crazy hot.
One heat wave after another with no respite.
Temps in the high 30s (near 100 degrees F) in the shade (if you can find any shade). 
Even our nights are too warm, which is not normal. 

During my sunset walk I was treated to these strange clouds and, mercifully, the breeze began to blow. 
Our summer skies do not often have any clouds.
And the long hot rainless summer can last for eight months.  

Shabbat shalom! 
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Thankful for clouds and you all

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As a way of celebrating Thanksgiving I went walkabout in the desert just outside my town.
Inside my secret cave in a hidden ravine I thanked God for all the beauty in my life.
On the walk home this unusual late afternoon sky was another gift from above.
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Shabbat shalom!
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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The former-green, almost-brown season

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The wild places around the periphery of Meitar are going into their in-between period, no longer green but not yet brown.

 
We had a few minutes of rain today, but that might be the last until next fall.

Just a month ago it looked like this, all green and flowery.
I hiked for a whole hour out there today without seeing even one person.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Overhead Power lines

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On the right of my bus the sun was setting, around 5:30.
To the left, the full moon of Hebrew month Adar was rising through this single tall, tall cloud.

More power to You, playful Creator of pillars of cloud! 
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Hail, hail, the gang's all here*

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My kids all came to Israel for the week of Feb. 9-15 for their father's funeral.
That was the week of wild weather -- dust storms, thunder and lightning, and to the north snow.

We left Tel Aviv soaked and bedraggled after gale force winds and driving rain caught us on the way to the train.
Here son Edo holds hailstones that awaited us at our destination on that last day together, the new Elma hotel**.
But he was also squinting because the sun had come out.  Go figure.

Here is the view from the hotel, which hugs the southern slopes of the Mount Carmel range.

And looking to the other direction, inland.

West of the greenhouses and fish ponds and farm fields -- the dark blue of a wavy Mediterranean Sea.

Lots of agriculture.   (All the photos can be enlarged with a click or two.)

The weather changed back and forth rapidly in the 24 hours that we stayed at the hotel.
This dark and threatening sky was at 3:00 in the afternoon. 

Then just two hours later came this beautiful light.
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*One version of the 1917 tune: 
(listen on YouTube at the link)

"Hail, hail, the gang's all here,
Never mind the weather, here we are together;
Hail, hail, the gang's all here,
Sure we're glad that you're here, too!"
 . . .
**UPDATE: Just published in XNet/Ynet!: stunning aerial photos of Elma hotel now and as it was in 1968, when it was Mivtachim (a rest & recreation place of the Histadrut).\!  Also interior shots.
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(Linking of course to SkyWatch Friday! )
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Winter clouds hang over the Jerusalem Hills

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Winter in the Jerusalem Hills.
Click twice to make an even bigger sky. 
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(For SkyWatch Friday.)
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Beer Sheva, Bedouins, and a boy

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A few pictures for SkyWatch Friday  from today's trip to Ramat Negev. 

The clouds are rolling in and tomorrow should bring thunderstorms and maybe flash floods.

Little patches of sun bring light to the desert.

Please enlarge this photo to get a better look at the sprawling skyline of Beer Sheva contrasted with a Bedouin settlement in the foreground.
And a Bedouin boy walking along the busy highway.
A lucky catch (not intended, not even seen) from a speeding bus! 
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Even horses do the rain dance

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Jumpin' for joy to finally see clouds in our sky!
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Linking to SkyWatch Friday.
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Latrun Monastery under clouds

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From the window of Jerusalem-Beer Sheva bus,  Latrun Monastery, home to Trappist monks and a hermit.
Under first clouds of autumn, a promise of cooler weather to come.

Click a few times to see the beautiful church and monastery buildings better. 
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Linking to SkyWatch Friday.
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The desert says good night

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The other evening, around 6:00 pm, I felt a pretty sunset coming on.
 So I walked a block down to the end of Meitar, stepped out into the desert, and looked all around.
To the west the sun was quickly sinking.

To the northeast,  fingers of pink clouds reached out of the South Hebron Hills.
A hand stretched out in blessing, before the fall of night?
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Welcome rain, at last

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 Clouds over Meitar

After last week's too-early dust storms and  unseasonably hot temperatures (over 30 C),
and after a winter of drought, we finally got a cool day of gentle, refreshing rain on Sunday!

Let's hope and pray for more.
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A pillar of cloud

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Just a few minutes walk from my place in Meitar and I can see the  

B I G   S K Y .

And last time, even a pillar of cloud!
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Linking to SkyWatch Friday.
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Parched earth but promising clouds

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Normally Israel has no rain for half a year, from spring to autumn.
Summer is hot and dry and very   l o n g . 
Now that I have moved south to Meitar maybe the blog should be known as Desert Daily Photo?

Today I saw real clouds over the Negev! 
The wind at sunset was actually cool!
How exciting.
Some light rain even fell further to the north.
I am so ready for this change of season.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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A pillar of cloud, and danger in the skies

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Who changed the name to Operation Pillar of Defense?
Our IDF Israel Defense Forces?

In Hebrew this strike against the Gaza rocket launching is called Amud Anan, literally Pillar of Cloud.
I wish they had kept the original name, straight from the Bible epics.

By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.
--Exodus 13:21

 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them . . .
--Exodus 14:19

As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses.
--Exodus 33:9

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A post for Sky Watch Friday. This week we watch the sky over southern Israel and now even over Tel Aviv for Qassams, Grads, and long-range Fajr missiles and hope that the Iron Dome batteries will intercept them.
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Birds enjoying the view

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These crows for Camera-Critters and clouds for SkyWatch Friday are from two weeks ago.
But this Friday, Saturday, Sunday  we are expecting some real rain for a change and temperatures falling down to 18, then 17, then 16 degrees C.
It has not been that cold in a long long time.

The photo is taken from the trail leading down into Ein Kerem village.
I walked there and back, several hours, because on the Sabbath there is no public transportation.
The big wall you see surrounds the convent of the Sisters of Sion.  Notre Dame de Sion was built back in 1861 and it is a beautiful quiet place.

And the farming terraces  are often from biblical times and are common in the Jerusalem Hills.
I love how they were built to last. 
They, too, are part of our built heritage.
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Dust storms, flash floods, rain, and snow

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Hello--I'm back!
We have been four days at over 400 meters below sea level.
My Naomi flew in from Australia and I got to take care of her little one while Naomi lectured and attended an engineering conference, all at a big hotel at Ein Bokek on the Dead Sea shore.

Strong winds blew up dust storms on three of our four days.
Yesterday we started the drive home, passing this little airstrip (enlarge to see the planes).
Across the sea (which you could hardly see), the sky was black and the Kingdom of Jordan was being treated to a rare snowfall.

Soon we passed Masada on the other side of the highway.

The road is between the Dead Sea on the east and tall cliffs on the west.
Eighteen normally dry riverbeds emerge from between these mountains.
When hard rain falls in Jerusalem or the Hebron Hills, the water collects in one or two or three of these wadis (you never know which it will be) and can suddenly come gushing out from the canyons under the little bridges built over the Dead Sea road.
But more often the flash floods rush over, not just under, the bridges.

Yesterday bulldozers were parked at the places most likely to flood.

Wow! We arrived just as the rolling brown water (enlarge the picture!) was starting to inundate the road and make its way to the Dead Sea!
The cars in front of us made it across just in time.

Naomi looked at the pole with potential depth markings of 0.5 meter, 1.0, and 1.5 meters, looked at our little toddler in the baby seat, and quickly (and wisely) turned the car in the opposite direction.

We drove south again, back in the direction of the hotels we had just left.
Luckily we did not encounter another flash flood; otherwise we would have been trapped in between two of them.

The only alternative was to climb up the Arad-Beersheba road.
The evaporating ponds where they mine potash and minerals from the Dead Sea water became visible way below, under a dramatic sky.

The road curved around and around as we ascended from minus 400 meters below sea level to about 500 meters above sea level.

What an adventure! It was our first time to see this powerful natural phenomenon with our own eyes.

Today, Friday, it snowed in Jerusalem. And even in my village for a few minutes.
March is acting like real winter.
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A post for SkyWatch Friday, of course!
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Flag of Spain and flag of Europe

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Winter clouds for SkyWatch Friday.
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The Consulate General of Spain is in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem.

It looks less ominous from the other side, in full sunlight.
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Spain and the State of Israel have had diplomatic relations only since 1986.
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The Spanish embassy is in Tel Aviv, like all the embassies, because of the problem nations have in recognizing Jerusalem as our capital.
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A mix of clouds

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Strange clouds behind our neighbor mountain caught the last rays of the setting sun.
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A sky for SkyWatch Friday.
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Like day and night

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Sundown is so welcome here in the Mideast--a sudden relief from the blazing sun.
The welcome, long-awaited cool breeze of night refreshes the body and soul.
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Here, for SkyWatch Friday are tonight's 8:00 pm clouds over the Jerusalem Hills.
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Clouds and soon rain, in MAY??

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For SkyWatch Friday, a cloudy sky over the hills, as seen from Moshav Yad Hashmona.

Israel expects a little rain this weekend. Very strange, this being late May, which is normally well into the dry season.

(We saw other parts of this village and their Biblical Garden in four previous posts. )
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