The Kinneret - the Sea of Galilee, Israel's largest freshwater reservoir and its standard of measure of the country's water supply - currently stands more than 3.3 meters (over ten feet) lower than its optimal level.
Though rainfall in October was plentiful, little if any precipitation has occurred since then. Rabbis nationwide have ruled that prayers for rain should be recited, in light of the current drought, so that winter rains will replenish the Sea and parch the land's thirst.
Last year at this time, the Kineret was 40 centimeters (16 inches) higher than now, but winter rains ultimately raised it to 1.9 meters lower than the optimum. The optimum level was attained occasionally in previous years, sometimes leading to the opening of the southern Kineret dams.
Weather forecasts currently call for sunny skies until Wednesday or Thursday, with rain beginning on Friday and not letting up until Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Every ten centimeters of height in the Kineret, the nation’s primary source of drinking water, represent some 17 million cubic meters of water, or roughly 3.5 times Israel's national consumption.
In other Kineret news, the Interior Ministry completed this week a campaign to tear down illegally-built fences along the lake. The fences, which prevented tax-payers from bathing in the freshwater national resource, were torn down at the Amnon Gulf, near the Kineret Moshava, the Golan Gate Beach, and between Kibbutz HaOn and Maagan.
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Though rainfall in October was plentiful, little if any precipitation has occurred since then. Rabbis nationwide have ruled that prayers for rain should be recited, in light of the current drought, so that winter rains will replenish the Sea and parch the land's thirst.
Last year at this time, the Kineret was 40 centimeters (16 inches) higher than now, but winter rains ultimately raised it to 1.9 meters lower than the optimum. The optimum level was attained occasionally in previous years, sometimes leading to the opening of the southern Kineret dams.
Weather forecasts currently call for sunny skies until Wednesday or Thursday, with rain beginning on Friday and not letting up until Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Every ten centimeters of height in the Kineret, the nation’s primary source of drinking water, represent some 17 million cubic meters of water, or roughly 3.5 times Israel's national consumption.
In other Kineret news, the Interior Ministry completed this week a campaign to tear down illegally-built fences along the lake. The fences, which prevented tax-payers from bathing in the freshwater national resource, were torn down at the Amnon Gulf, near the Kineret Moshava, the Golan Gate Beach, and between Kibbutz HaOn and Maagan.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Throughout the year, Arutz-7 gives you the news
you depend on, from a perspective not found elsewhere.
This Chanukah, we ask our readers to give back.
Click Now to Pledge Your Support for Arutz-7.
or call-in to our live radio Arutz Shevathon
Thursday December 21, 8 AM-Midnight EST.