So It's Not An Act of G_D....

I went for my first appointment with my new acupuncturist this morning. It was about a 40 minute walk and hadn't gotten too hot yet. I didn't get lost although found it difficult to enter the building from the correct place. She was great, the appointment, treatment and location were great, it felt very familiar with my practitioner and treatments back in Silver Spring. I have not had a treatment for about 2 months and I have been able to tell for a while now. Knowing that she can help me this next year and feeling like I am being taken care of is a wonderful feeling. Anyway, about that act of G_d. Yesterday I posted about the weather and how heat waves can be broken without rain. My acupuncturist has been living in Jerusalem since 1983 so she knows the seasons and patterns quite well. She explained to me that strong increases in wind is what breaks heat waves here. She pointed out that it was a bit windy Saturday evening and as a result was a few degrees cooler yesterday than Saturday and that the same thing happened last night -- more wind and thus a few degrees cooler today than yesterday. I also asked her about the seasons, temperature and weather patterns in Jerusalem (it is important to note that she has seen global warming in action, namely seen by less and less annual rainfall). The summer/hot/dry months account for about half the year, approximately May-September. The first rain is often on Sukkot depending on how early or late it is and seems to be Washington, DC style -- rainy and cool or sunny and hot. Either the sukkah gets blown apart at some point or you sit it in sweating and miserable. October and November are moderate to cool temperature wise (upper 50s-lower 70s) and have sporadic rain, with the rain increasing the closer it gets to December. Rain increases and temperatures drop in December, and January and February are the coldest, wettest and most miserable months. March and April are somewhat similar to October and November -- mostly moderate temperatures and slowly decreasing amounts of rain. Come Passover, like Sukkot, the weather quickly changes and it is suddenly becomes hot, dry and sunny summertime. I'm just relieved that I will be able to wear all of the long sleeve shirts and pants I brought. I guess I was in denial that summer lasts a good 5 months as I didn't bring as many summer clothing choices as I should have. I've only been here 6 weeks, and it already seems strange to me that in another few months I will have to actually pay attention to the forecast so I know if I need to wear my rain jacket or not. But for now, the wind is slowly doing it's thing, and hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to wear long sleeve or a jacket in the evening, just like it's meant to be in Jerusalem.

So What Exactly Breaks A Heat Wave In Jerusalem?

So it has been extremely hot for the past week or so. 100 degree days, 80 degree nights, barely a hot breeze if any breeze at all, actual humidity, blistering sun and sweating so much that I think I'm kind of dehydrated. At Shabbat dinner a few of us were talking about what actually breaks a heat wave in Israel. In the States, where it is humid in probably 80% of the country all summer, those dreaded yet wonderful evening thunderstorms are what usually breaks all of those heat waves, at least for a little bit if not for a few days. We all dread the chance that we will lose power, airports become chaotic with canceled flights and disgruntled passengers and we often get drenched as we are caught out in the sudden downpour. But the beauty of it is that once the storms move out of the area it can often be quite cool and a little breezy. We are all used to this as we spend year after year in certain parts of the States. It is pretty much all I've known since the same thing happens in Barboursville, Athens and WDC. So as we all talked on Friday night we none knew what breaks a heat wave here. I was joking that when I had checked the long range forecast for Jerusalem, which covered 5 days, the first 4 days had a great big sun on it and really hot temperatures, while the 5th day had a great big sun on it and a few little clouds. Maybe that's the breaker here in Israel. It is almost always clear, blue skies here all summer, so seeing a few clouds on the extended forecast was interesting to me. I went out today, mid afternoon, to meet Rachel so we could run some errands. We noticed as we were out that the sky was becoming a bit overcast with some passing clouds. The wind had picked up some and I said to Rachel that it really feels like it is going to rain. We live in a land of miracles, so to speak, and there's a better chance that some would repeat themselves before we would get a random storm in the middle of summer here in Jerusalem. I am curious enough now about how a heat wave in Jerusalem breaks, so if I find anything interesting out I'll let y'all know. All I really care about right now is the temperature here returning to the mid 80s during the day and the wonderful, cool and breezy mid 60s at night.