Page 129 - Advanced Bible Geography ebook

All along the Mediterranean coastline the lands have a climate which is almost tropical. The winters are
the days of rain; the summers are hot and dry. Because of the extreme altitude variations, it will snow
in the mountains providing water for the region and at the same time, tropical fruits will ripen in the
coastal regions.

Rainfall in Israel depends on how high above sea level you are. It rains a lot in the mountains, a little in
the plains, and hardly at all in the southern regions of desert. North of the Sea Galilee receives the most
rain or about 60 inches yearly. To the south near Jerusalem, the average rainfall is around 20-30 inches
per year, or about half as much. Continuing on to Beersheba it may only rain less than 8 inches in a
year. It is really interesting that in the Jordan Valley (the Rift), the city of Jericho receives very little
rainfall, maybe 4 inches annually. But Jerusalem, only 15 miles to the west, receives around 20 inches.

While the Jordan River Valley
flows north to south through the
length of the country, the amount
of rainfall in the valley is minimal.
The entire area is famous for its
fertility and is watered primarily
not by rain, but by irrigation from
the River. By the time the waters
of the Jordan reach the mouth of
the Dead Sea, the river is so small
that a person can almost jump
across it. In fact, today Israel and
Jordan remove most of the water
for irrigation and drinking, and as a
result the Dead Sea’s surface level
is dropping more than 1 meter or
3 feet every year. When you
consider that the surface of the
Dead Sea is the lowest point on
the planet - currently 420m (1,380ft) below sea level - that means that the planet's lowest point is being
recalibrated on an annual basis.

In many areas in the land of Israel, especially along the coastline, there are extremely heavy dews. They
come from the evaporation of water in the Mediterranean on summer days, and then fall to the ground
as it is cooled at night. Some areas of the
cost have dew three quarters of the year and
it provides for nearly one quarter of their
moisture. Remember, Elijah the prophet, for
example, when he predicted the coming
drought said, “There will be neither dew nor
rain.” (I Kings 17:1). Also remember Gideon.
When he “fleeced” the Lord, he asked that
dew appear only on the ground or only on
the fleece to validate God’s promise. The
nightly dew covers the entire area with
moisture.

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