300,000 Israelis brave heavy rain to visit parks over holiday

Despite Sunday's downpour, hundreds of thousands of Israelis visited national parks and natural reserves over the long Rosh Hashanah weekend, as reported on Sunday by Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Jewish National Fund.

Some 300,000 people spent the day outdoors all over the country, while the most popular sites were the Ashkelon National park, Ein Gedi Natural reserve, and the Carmel Mountains.

During the afternoon, the amount of rain that had fallen in the Golan Heights had reached a peak of 70 millimeters, after only several hours of downfall. Only several millimeters of rain fell in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, similar to the amount measured along the coast and at the Sea of Galilee.

The rain is expected to continue to fall on Monday and could cause floods in the southern areas of the Judea Desert and the Negev, as well as in cities throughout Israel.

This type of rainy whether is unusual so early in winter and is the result of a cold front that blew in from Turkey and the Black sea, as explained by the meteorological services.

It is not uncommon for the first rain to fall during September, but the amount is generally scant. By and large, serious rains only appear in the area some time around mid October.

These records coincide with the upcoming year's weather forecast which has predicted a rise of approximately 25 percent in rainfall, relative to the last year's data.

Due to this, the Water Authority said that this will be a good time to reduce water consumption, because with the drop in temperatures, the amount of water that evaporates lessens, which allows plants to survive on less water - between 20 and 30 percent less - without damaging them.