The Climate of Israel: Observation, Research and Application

292 Pages·2003·10.287 MB·English

by  Yair Goldreich (auth.)

THE CLIMATE OF ISRAEL
OBSERVATION, RESEARCH
AND APPLICATIONS
First published in Hebrew by Bar-Han University Press
Yair Goldreich
THE CLIMATE OF ISRAEL
Observations, Research and Application
Copyright Bar-Han University, Ramat-Gan
Printed in Israel, 1998
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THE CLIMATE OF ISRAEL
OBSERVATION, RESEARCH
AND APPLICATION
Yair Goldreich
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan. Israel
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
ISBN 978-1-4613-5200-6 ISBN 978-1-4615-0697-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-0697-3
©2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers,New York in 2003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover Ist edition 2003
http://www.wkap.nll
1098765432
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Preface
This book describes and analyses various aspects of Israeli climate. This work also elucidates how both man
and nature adjust to various climates. The first part (Chapters 1-9) deals with the meteorological and climatological
network stations, the history of climate research in Israel, analysis of the local climate by season, and a discussion
of the climate variables their spatial and temporal distribution. The second part (Chapters 10-14) of this work is
devoted to a survey of applied climatology. This part presents information on weather forecasting, rainfall
enhancement, air quality monitoring, and various climatological aspects of planning. There is no sharp division
between theoretical and applied climatology topics. Moreover, though various sections seem exclusively
theoretical, they also include important applications for various real life situations (such as rainfall intensities
(Section 5.3), frost, frost damage (Section 6.2.4), degree-days (Section 6.2.5) and heat stress (Section 6.2.6).
Professionals and university students of geography and earth science, meteorology and climatology, even high
school students majoring in geography will be able to use this book as a basic reference work. Researchers in
atmospheric science can also use this work as an important source of reference. Students of agriculture will also
gain theoretical and practical insights. Even architects and engineers will gain another perspective in their fields.
A comprehensive glossary was included to help readers to better understand the more technical and specialized
terms used in the text. To facilitate fluent reading, lengthy and detailed explanations were excluded. Efforts were
made to keep footnotes few and concise.
For the readers' convenience, the full bibliography instead of partial bibliographies (Hebrew and other sources)
at the end of each chapter, is presented at the end of the book. References, including the original language of
publication, appear within the text (author/s, year of publication). References not specifically referring to the
Mediterranean area are marked with an asterisk (*). When the referred research appears in multiple forms (a Ph.D.
dissertation, research report, a scientific journal article; either in Hebrew and another language), only one source is
cited. When citing source from various sources, first preference was given to articles published in international
journals. Articles appearing in refereed Israeli journals (such as the Israel Journal of Earth Sciences; Israel
Meteorological Research Papers), took preference over articles appearing in other local journals. Last preference
was given to less accessible sources or unpublished material. Often, particularly with important topics, we have
chosen to refer to the less accessible [English] source material as well as the more acceptable Hebrew source
material. A last passing comment, the Hebrew language journal, Meteorologia BeIsrael often cited and quoted, has
over the thirty years of its publication, changed its format twice. In some volumes each bulletin is paginated
separately, while in others there is continuous pagination for the whole volume. Thus, the pagination of this major
source varies.
v
vi PREFACE
Hebrew terms used in this work are those published in the Meteorological Dictionaryl of the Hebrew Language
Academy. Popular Hebrew weather terms were generally avoided. However, to avoid ambiguity popular terms
were used. For example, the popular nonscientific term sea breeze was used instead of the scientific term sea wind;
because sea wind might here be misinterpreted as a general term referring to a westerly wind.
The new international units (SI - System International), such as meter, kilogram and second were used. For
example, the pressure unit Hecto-pascal (hPa) is used, instead of the millibar (which is the same size as the hPa)
still commonly used on synoptic charts; work (and energy) units joule were used instead of Langley unit (in the
solar radiation domain); when not otherwise mentioned, temperatures are in Celsius. Wind speed units were
applied, according to the conventional use in each particular field, meters/seconds, knots, and kmlhour. Hours cited
are local wintertime, which is two hours earlier than the UTC (Universal Time Coordinated, formerly Greenwich
Mean Time). To change the data from wintertime to summertime (which is three hours earlier than the UTC), an
hour should be added to wintertime. Generally, the conventional 5% (0.05) statistical level of significance was
applied, this means that there are about 5 chances in 100 that to reject the hypothesis when it should be accepted.
Although it is unconventional to present data in both tables and figures, we have sometimes presented data in
both forms. For instance, it is more convenient to examine the spatial distribution on a map and to find the exact
value on a table. Geographical data are generally presented by the three longitude strips oflsrael (Coastal Plain, the
mountainlhilly region and the Jordan Rift Valley); the data for each strip are displayed from north to south. This is
also the conventional display format of Israeli Meteorological Service publications. Only recently, has the
Meteorological Service applied a new method to display data, by geo-climate regions (See Fig. 2.10). Using this
new system, it is easier to compare data of the same region, yet, using the former system of longitude strips, it is
less difficult to locate the specific weather station.
Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues at the various institutions for their assistance in completing this
work. A special thanks to those colleagues who critically read and made constructive suggestions for the
improvement of the section of the manuscript in their specific field:
Zvi Alperson, Director ofIMS (Chapter 10); Prof. Pinhas Alpert, the Department of Geophysics and Planetary
Sciences, Tel-Aviv University (Chapters 3, 4 and Section 11.2); Prof. Stephen Brenner, Israel Oceanographic and
Lirnnological Research Ltd. (Section 11.2); Prof. Uri Dayan, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University
(Section 12.2); Dr. Eli'ezer Ganor, Head of Physics Unit, Environmental Studies Institute, Ministry of
Environment, Ramat Aviv (Chapter 8); Prof. Yoel Gat, Isotopes Department, Weizmann Institute (Section 9.1);
Zipora Gat, Head of Agrometeorological Unit, IMS (Chapter 7 and Sections 6.2.4, 13.1); Dr. Michael Graber,
(Former) Head of Air Quality Unit, Ministry of Environment (Section 12.2); Prof. Gedalyahu Gvirtzman,
I The Hebrew Language Academy, the Meteorological Service and Massada Publication, 1971. Y.L. Tokatley wrote and published by the
Defense Ministry, 1994, an updated dictionary with the same name, including not only the translation ofthe term but also its definition.
PREFACE vii
Department of Geography, Bar-Dan University (Section 9.1); Dr. Amiran Ianetz, Research and Development Unit,
IMS (Section 6.1); Prof. Haim Kutiel, Department of Geography, Haifa University, (Chapter 5);
Eng. Nurit Perlow, Wind Energy Unit Coordinator, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (Chapter 14);
Prof. Daniel Rosenfeld, Atmospheric Sciences Department the Hebrew University (Chapter 11 and Sections 3.6,
9.3); Sarah Rubin, Head of Climate Unit, IMS (Chapter 2 and Section 6.2); Prof. David Sharon Earth Sciences
Institute, The Hebrew University (Section 5.4); Prof. Dov Skibin, the Nuclear Research Center, Negev (Chapter 14
and Section 13.3); Prof. Gerald Stanhill, Water and Soil Institute, Agricultural Research Organization (the Volcani
Center), Bet Dagan (Sections 6.1, 7.1); Dr. Lutz Striem formerly of the Nuclear Research Center, Soreq (Chapter 5
and Section 9.2); Yehuda Tokatly, former Director IMS (Chapter I); Samuel Yaffe, former Director IMS
(Chapter 4 and Sections 2.4, 5.2.3.4); Prof. Abraham Zangvil, Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University
(Chapters 3, 4).
I would like to thank various publishers, authors, and copyright holders of various publications for the use of
figures, tables, maps and photographs: My gratitude is given to Zvi Alperson, Director ofIMS and Samuel Yaffe,
former Director, for permission to copy figures and tables from IMS publications and from the Israel
Meteorological Research Papers; Ja'akov Lomas, Chairman of the Israeli Meteorological Union, for permission to
use material from Meteorologia beIsrael; Weizmann Institute Publication, for material from the Journals: Mada
(Fig. 8.8) and Israel Journal of Earth Sciences (Figs. 4.1; 4.3; 4.4; 7.11; 12.3). The publishers of HaSsadeh and
Horizons in Geography journals; American Meteorological Society for permission to use material from the
journals: Journal of (Climate and) Applied Meteorology (Figs. 4.12; 4.13; 4.14; 4.15; 9.9; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 11.4)
and Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (Figs. 3.6; 3.7); American Geophysical Union for permission
to use material from the journals: Journal of Geophysical Research (Fig. 9.10) Water Resources Research
(Fig. 11.7); Akademische Veriagsgesellschaft the publisher of Geojournal; Elsevier Sequoia A.S. the publisher of
Energy and Buildings (Fig. 13.3); Elsevier Nederland the publisher of The Science of the Total Environment
(Fig. 12.8); The Royal Meteorological Society the copyrights owner of (International) Journal of Climatology
(Fig. 2.6); Pergamon Press Ltd the publisher of Atmospheric Environment and Solar Energy (Figs. 6.1; 6.2; 6.4);
Springer Verlag the publisher of the journals: Archiv for Meteorologie Geophysik und Bioklimatologie (Figs. 5.4;
5.8; 9.8) and International Journal ofB iometeorology (Figs. 6.17; 13.1); Chicago University Press the publisher of
Journal of Near Eastern Studies; Ohio State University Press the publishers of Geographical Analysis;
Inter-Research Science Publication the publisher of Climatic Research (Figs. 6.13; 6.14); Kluwer Academic
Publishers group the publisher of the Journals: Climatic Change (Figs. 9.5; 9.6; 9.7) and Boundary Layer
Meteorology (Fig. 12.4); John Wiley & Sons the copyrights owner of the book Environmental Geoscience
(Figs. 2.3; 2.4); Harvard University Press the copyrights owner of the book The Negev - the Challenge ofa Desert;
Balaban ISS the publisher of Developments in Arid Zone Ecology and Environmental Duality; University of
Wisconsin the publisher of the book The Earth's Problem Climates (Fig. 3.2; 3.3); Blackwell Scientific Publishers
viii PREFACE
the owner of the journal Bulletin of the I.A.S.H (Fig. 5.11); The Geography Department of Ben-Gurion University,
the publisher of Geographical Research Forum and the publications Climatic Model ofA tmospheric Flow in Be 'er
Sheva and Vicinity and Industrial Optimal Siting with Minimal Air Pollution in Ashdod and Vicinity; Butterworth
& Co. publisher of Applied Geography (Fig. 14.5); Harrassowitz Verlag the publisher of Zeitsch. d. Deutsch.
Palast. - Vereins (Fig. 1.1). The Israel Mapping Center, Ministry of Housing, for figures taken from the Atlas of
Israel of both editions; Ministry of Sciences, the publishers of Bulletin of the Research Council of Israel;
Agricultural Engineering Faculty, the Technion; T AHAL Consulting. Engineers; The Israeli Medicine Union the
publisher of HaRefuah; The Israeli Exploration Society the publisher of Eretz-Israel, Archaeological, Historical
and Geographical Studies (D. Amiran Vol.); the publisher of Agriculture Encyclopedia; the editorial board of
'Eretz " research and pUblications in geography; Qiryat-Sefer publisher of Collection of Studies on the Land of
Israel by N. Shalem.
The following persons gave permission for use of material: Shula Elbashan for material of the
late Daniel Elbashan; Ilia Ashbel for material of the late Prof. Dov Ashbel; the authors Ora Kami;
Prof. Haim Kutiel; Dr. Oded Potchter; Architect Arieh Raharnimoff; Dr. Baruch Ronberg; Dr. Milo Rosenberg;
Prof. Daniel Rosenfeld; Dr. Hadas Sa'aroni; Shraga Stiefel; Dr. Baruch Ziv.
I have tried my best to locate all the copywrite holders who have rights to cited material, but unfortunately,
I was not always successful. I apologize for any errors or omissions.
My thanks to Raviv Kula, Orli Haimee and Dafna Meir for drawing the figures and to Ora Kami,
Agrometeorological Unit, !MS, who compiled the first bibliographical list of this book.
I am indebted to the Chancellor, Rector, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Research Authority of
Bar-Han University; the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture of the State ofIsrael; The Jordan
Valley Unit of the Settlement, branch of the World Zionist Union; the Dr. Irvine and Cerana Moskowitz Chair in
Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ian; the Schnitzer Foundation for Research on the Israeli Economy and Society; the
President of Israel AMOS Foundation; KKL; the Leon Gottfried Foundation for financial aid to produce the
Hebrew edition of this book.
I thank them all.
July 1996 Yair Goldreich
Department of Geography, Bar-Han University
Preface to the English Edition
This English edition of this book is an updated and revised version of the Hebrew edition, published in 1998 by
Bar-Han University (Ramat Gan) and Magnes (Hebrew University Publishers, Jerusalem). Some 90 new references
have been added; many Hebrew references, with parallel references in English were omitted. Some sections, which
may be obvious to Israelis (for example, describing the general physiography features of Israel), have been added
for the international reader; some of the particularly localized text has been omitted.
Since many readers may not find the Hebrew references easily accessible or relevant, the letter (H) has been added
to each Hebrew reference. It should be noted however, that many Hebrew journals include an English summary
(e.g. Judea Samaria Research Studies) and all the Masters and Ph.D. theses granted at Israeli Universities include
expanded English abstracts.
A geographical index next to each site, the region number according to Fig. 2.10 (or the geo-climatic map printed
on the back cover of the book) was added to assist the reader who is not familiar with the map of Israel. However,
names of locations more familiar to the international reader have been used, for example Jerusalem and not
Yerushalayim was used. The official Hebrew names (for example Yerushalayim) have been included in square
brackets, in the geographical index. The official spelling of locations as appear in the Map of Settlements in Eretz
Israel, 1:250,000 (1997), Survey of Israel, Tel Aviv has been used. A list of abbreviations and a micro Hebrew
English dictionary of site names has been included.
I would like to thank my colleagues at the various institutions that assisted me in the completion of the English
version of this book, especially I would like to thank those colleagues who critically read and made constructive
suggestions for the improvement of sections of the manuscript: Prof. Leonard Druyan (Chapter 3); Prof. Gerald
Stanhill (Chapters 5, 6.1, 7.1, 9.2, 9.3) and Prof. Stephen Brenner (most of the remaining chapters).
My thanks to Ms. Sigal Bracha and Mr. Lev Karnibad for converting the drawings from Hebrew to English.
My appreciation to Kluwer Academic Plenum Publishers, with special thanks to Dr. Kenneth Howell and
Mary Curioli. Without Brenda Idstein, our English Language Editor, this work would never have been
accomplished. Her patience and time were invaluable.
January, 2002 Yair Goldreich
Department of Geography, Bar-Han University
ix
Contents
List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. xvii
Micro Dictionary of Site Names ............................................................................................................ xvii
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................... xix
List of Photos ........................................................................................................................................ xxiv
List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................ xxiv
PART I
ISRAEL CLIMATOLOGY: OBSERVATION AND RESEARCH
CHAPTER 1 THE HISTORY OF CLIMATE AND METEOROLOGICAL
OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH IN ISRAEL ............................................................ 3
1.1 Pre-mandate climate observations ......................................................................... 3
1.2 British mandate meteorological stations ................................................................ 6
1.3 Israel meteorological stations ................................................................................ 8
1.4 Israel climate research ........................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 2 CLIMATE REGIONS AND SEASONS IN ISRAEL ............................................... 12
2.1 Physiography and the location ofIsrael on the world climatic map .................... 12
2.2 Mediterranean climate ......................................................................................... 12
2.3 Israel climate regions ........................................................................................... 13
2.3.1 Koppen map ............................................................................................ 13
2.3.2 Thomthwaite Classification .................................................................... 15
2.3.3 Budyko's aridity index ........................................................................... 16
2.3.4 Automated regional division ................................................................... 17
2.3.5 Geo-climatic zones ................................................................................. 19
2.4 Seasons in Israel .................................................................................................. 21
CHAPTER 3 RAINY SEASON (WINTER AND TRANSITIONAL SEASONS) CLIMATE .......... 23
3.1 Mean pressure system .......................................................................................... 23
3.2 Cyclogenesis regions in the Mediterranean basin ................................................ 23
3.2.1 Genoa low ............................................................................................... 24
3.2.2 Saharan low ............................................................................................ 24
3.2.3 Cyprus low .............................................................................................. 24
3.3 Depression routes in the Mediterranean Sea ........................................................ 26
3.4 Red Sea trough ..................................................................................................... 26
3.5 Jet stream and jet rainfall ..................................................................................... 27
3.6 Cold fronts and subsequent cold air masses ........................................................ 28
3.6.1 Cold fronts .............................................................................................. 31
3.6.2 Cold air masses behind the cold fronts ................................................... 31
3.6.2.1 Convection lines (post frontal lines) ....................................... 31
xi
xii CONTENTS
3.6.2.2 Benard cells and disorganized convective cells ..................... 31
3.6.2.3 Coastal fronts .......................................................................... 32
3.6.2.4 Cloud streets ........................................................................... 33
3.6.3 Vortices ................................................................................................... 33
3.6.4. The relationship between cloud systems ................................................ 34
3.7 Typical winter weather and synoptic conditions ................................................. 35
3.7.1 Statistics of winter weather classifications ............................................. 35
3.7.2 Synoptic conditions for rain .................................................................... 39
3.7.3 Transition frequencies from one weather condition to another .............. 40
CHAPTER 4 SUMMER CLIMATE ................................................................................................... 41
4.1 Mean pressure distribution ................................................................................... 41
4.2 The summer paradox ........................................................................................... 42
4.3 The Persian trough ............................................................................................... 43
4.4 Summer inversions .............................................................................................. 44
4.5 Upper inversion spatial distribution ..................................................................... 45
4.6 Summer month differences .................................................................................. 46
4.7 Daily breeze march and vertical changes on the coastal plain ............................. 48
4.8 Spatial distribution of the diurnal circulation over Israel .................................... 51
CHAPTER 5 PRECIPITATION ......................................................................................................... 55
5.1 The spatial variation of precipitation ................................................................... 56
5.1.1 Factors affecting spatial variation and relative contribution ................... 56
5.1.2 Orographic influence .............................................................................. 58
5.1.3 The latitude component .......................................................................... 60
5.1.4 Proximity to the sea and lee side effects ................................................. 61
5.2 Temporal variations of precipitation .................................................................... 62
5.2.1 Diurnal rainfall distribution .................................................................... 63
5.2.2 Intra-annual rainfall distribution ............................................................. 63
5.2.2.1 Monthly intraseasonal variation ............................................. 65
5.2.2.2 Other intraseasonal variations ................................................ 68
5.2.2.3 Wet and dry spells .................................................................. 69
5.2.2.4 Number of rainy days ............................................................. 71
5.2.3 Interannual variation ............................................................................... 71
5.2.3.1 Interannual rainfall distribution .............................................. 72
5.2.3.2 Interannual monthly rainfall distribution ................................ 74
5.2.3.3 Rainfall periodicity ................................................................. 75
5.2.3.4 Droughts in Israel ................................................................... 76
5.3 Rainfall intensity .................................................................................................. 79
5.3.1 Daily amounts ......................................................................................... 79
5.3.2 Hourly intensities .................................................................................... 80
5.3.3 Depth-duration ratios .............................................................................. 81
5.4 Solid precipitation and thunderstorms ................................................................. 85
5.4.1 Snow ....................................................................................................... 85
5.4.2 Hail ......................................................................................................... 88
5.4.3 Thunderstorms ........................................................................................ 91
CHAPTER 6 RADIATION AND TEMPERATURE ......................................................................... 92
6.1 Radiation .............................................................................................................. 92
6.1.1 Annual march of solar radiation ............................................................. 92
6.1.2 Daily march of radiation ......................................................................... 94
6.1.3 Ultraviolet radiation ................................................................................ 94