A massive “derecho” collection of several thunderstorms packing gusts of up to 100 miles an hour along a span of 240 miles is in its early stages of formation as storms roll eastward from the Midwest and are expected to bring flooding to the New York and New England area.

The word “derecho” is Spanish for  ”straight,” characterizing the straight-line winds that are forecast to devastate areas where 20 percent of American until Friday.

The potentially massive storm system is a collection of storms that join together, creating a potentially deadly blow from Chicago to Baltimore and possibly into Philadelphia. High winds and heavy rains are predicted for the New York area, particularly eastern Long Island, and along the New England coast.

Last year, a derecho smacked into 11 states and Washington, killing 13 people, downing trees and causing power blackouts and $1 billion in damage.

The storm is 240 miles wide and is expected to travel 50 miles, starting with thunderstorm Wednesday afternoon and evening in northern Illinois, according to AccuWeather.

Tornados are possible.

If the thunderstorms connect, as expected, the system will be in the form of a bow that will develop into a derecho.

One of the worst facets of the derecho is the surprise factor.

Accu Weather advised, “If you will be out and about or have any plans Wednesday afternoon through the night, you will need to pay special attention to the weather as this could be a particularly dangerous situation…

“Keep in mind that lightning is one of Mother Nature’s most dangerous killers. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to the storm to be struck by lightning, even if the sun is still shining.”

“It’s a pretty high threat,” said Bill Bunting, operations chief at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. “We don’t want to scare people, but we want them to be aware.”

The storms will move so fast that “by the time you see the dark sky and distant thunder you may have only minutes to get to safe shelter,” Bunting added.

The derecho is not expected to be as savage as previous ones that hit the United States last year, in 2003 and 2006, but damage and flooding might be more extensive.

The “best case” scenario I that the thunderstorms will not connect. “It’s like predicting a large tornado is going to happen. No one can do that. The only thing we can do is say conditions are favorable for one to happen,” said MSNBC meteorologist Bill Karins.

As readers may have heard, Israel (along with other countries in the Middle East) has been experiencing unusually stormy weather this last week with high winds and heavy rains. The more unpleasant aspects of these comparatively rare events have included disruptions to the transport system and homes affected by flooding, with the IDF’s search and rescue teams being called in to evacuate people trapped by flood waters both in Israel and in the PA-controlled areas .

The weather system culminated with much anticipated snow in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and many of the higher areas throughout Israel – including the Negev desert – causing great excitement in a country where this is a fairly rare occurrence.  Equally exciting has been the dramatic rise in the water level of the Sea of Galilee, which climbed by almost 70 cms between the storm’s beginning last Friday and its subsidence on Thursday.

The short film below, made by Oz Segev of Ma’ale Gamla on Monday morning, shows some of the swollen streams of the south and central Golan Heights which all drain into the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). In order of appearance the film shows the Daliyot stream, the Yehudia stream, the Meshushim stream, the Jordan Park junction at the top of the lake, the upper Meshushim stream, the Aiyt waterfall, the Bnei Israel reservoir and a view from Ma’ale Gamla.

Tsfat (Safed) with a dusting of snow

Visit CifWatch.

The last several posts have been about the rain, hail and snow that has hit Israel in the last week. According to a news item I just saw, Israel received over 100% of its needed annual rain – in just this last week. In many places the rainfall was in the range of 150 – 200% of the seasonal expectations.

I opened this post because I wanted to write about something else, anything else, but the rain and the weather. Not because I’m sick of it – but because I thought maybe you were. But here I am again, summing it up because perhaps in making this many posts, those of you outside of Israel will realize what the rain and the water means to us. It is our yearly communication with God (from a people who communicate with Him daily)- yes, we see it as a blessing.

Every drop – even when it brings us mud, floods, and cold.

Sometimes, we see the rain as a message of comfort – I can’t tell you how many times there have been terror attacks and as the victims were being buried, the rain poured down. Some referred to the rain as God’s tears, that God was crying with all of Israel. Sadly, some very religious people take the rain as an indication of God’s whim. But God doesn’t have whims – He has plans; He makes promises and He keeps them.

There are things we do not understand – so many things, but I believe God answers EVERY prayer that is sent to Him. What we, as human beings, fail to accept is that “no” is as much an answer as “yes.” When we tell our children, “no, you can’t do that” or “no, you can’t have that” – we never mean that we don’t love them or that we aren’t listening or trying to do what is best for them. It is no different with God, who is the Father of all we are and all we have. I think God loves us – despite ourselves.

And what all these posts were meant to say is that we felt God’s love over the past week – yes, even in the floods, even in the damage. Trees were knocked down – okay, they will be replanted or re-planned. Houses flooded – okay, they’ll dry out and be repainted. There were, as there always are – so many miracles and so much positive.

A bus of soldiers was hit by a flash flood and swept away – it could have ended so badly – but they were all rescued. Children in several places were also swept away – and again, saved. Two Palestinian women were drowned but many Arabs were saved by our emergency forces.

From trapped cars, trapped homes – from roof tops and elsewhere, Israel’s emergency forces deserve our tremendous gratitude and love as the sun slowly works its way through the clouds and the weather forecasters promise a few warmer days of sunshine ahead.

Yes, Israel got hit with a storm of historic proportions last week – but we had a lot of fun. We saw some pretty silly people try kayaking down swollen waterways (and yes, one needed to be rescued) and since we’re less than two weeks from the elections, even politics made it into the weather with pictures of Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home Party photoshopped into various places.

He is, in many ways, the darling of the election. He is young, handsome, dynamic and fresh in a system that is predictable and dirty. While most others attack him and put words in his mouth, he has run a surprisingly clean and positive campaign. Several times, over Shabbat, his political enemies have attacked him – putting words in his mouth that he didn’t say, twisting and spinning. Bennett is a religious man and so keeps the Sabbath.

But I saw a report in which he said (paraphrasing here) – something like – “but Saturday night always comes.” There are reckonings to be made in all things. For all the nastiness that has come his way, his party has risen above all expectations and much of Israel laughed as his image was placed water skiing on the flooded highways, rising from the snow below Netanyahu’s feet, and elsewhere on Facebook.

And, I’ve just come home from the local mini-market (called “makolet” in Hebrew) and saw snow on the roof of someone’s car. I took a plastic bag and filled it part way; Elie wanted another. As I was doing it, a little boy across the street said, “Daddy, look snow.” And so I took him a handful too. I gave a snowball to Aliza and one to Davidi and put the rest in my freezer. I’ve done this before – it will turn to ice and be thrown out around Passover time (about 3 months from now). but for now, I have snow in my freezer and my house is warm. Shabbat is coming.

The Sea of Galilee is rising and Israel was reminded last week that blessings come from above, that sun follows rain, that we are forever protected, watched over, loved.

All the rest is the little stuff…I have snow in my freezer!

Visit A Soldier’s Mother.

The rainstorms that began over the weekend in Israel have only intensified, with strong winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour in Jerusalem, overflowing rivers in Tel Aviv, overturned parked mopeds in Efrat, closed roads around the country, and snow on parts of the Hermon mountain.

Jerusalemites are eagerly anticipating the possibility of snow on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Herzliya train station is closed due to flooding, and on Sunday, seven people had to be rescued from a trapped elevator in the station.

And Baruch Hashem, the Kinneret is only going up.