Israelis are bundled up and hunkered down to wait out the winter weather from one end of the country to the other, with the residents of Haifa avoiding flooded streets and people in the Golan Heights gazing out on sparkling white snowflakes falling from the sky.
Even in Jerusalem the winter weekend forecast is offering a bit of the white stuff for the holy city.
But Israel is not the place that is being hit with a winter storm this weekend. Paris is “orange alert” as the National Weather Service of France reports that 15 government departments were on a flood watch Thursday. Orange Alert is the country’s second-highest level, as rivers in the country continue to swell with even more rain in the forecast.
The Seine River is expected to continue to rise to a level of approximately 6.1 meters (20 feet) by Saturday, after reaching 5.44 meters (18 feet) by Thursday morning at the Austerlitz Bridge. The northern and eastern regions of France are also under threat as well. According to reports from Europe, four government departments in central France are on alert for snow and ice as well.
The Israel Meteorological Service says occasional showers and isolated thunderstorms are in the forecast overnight in the north and along the coast with a risk of flooding in flood prone regions. Snow is expected up at Mount Hermon, with strong winds as well.
On Friday forecasters in Israel are predicting thunderstorms and hail from the north to the northern Negev, with more snow at Mount Hermon on the northern and central peaks. There’s a flood alert on for the coastal plain and the Judean desert, and strong winds are expected, with unseasonably cold temperatures. The rain is expected to taper off gradually.