Saw it with my very own eyes, I did. It got even thicker after I retreated inside, shivering.
Posted on 01/30/2008 10:08:55 AM PST by NormsRevenge
JERUSALEM - A rare snowstorm swept the Middle East on Wednesday, blanketing parts of the Holy Land in white, shutting schools and sending excited children into the streets for snowball fights.
The weather in Jerusalem topped local newscasts, eclipsing a government report on Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon.
Men in long Arab robes pelted each other with snowballs in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government, came to a standstill.
"I'm originally from Gaza where snow never falls," said Bothaina Smairi, 28, who was out in Ramallah taking photographs. "The white snow is covering the old world and I feel like I am in a new world where everything is white, clean, and beautiful."
Jerusalem's Old City was coated in white. A few ultra-Orthodox Jews, wearing plastic bags over their hats to keep them dry, prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.
Snow falls in Jerusalem once or twice each winter, but temperatures rarely drop low enough for it to stick. The Israeli weather service said up to 8 inches of snow fell in the city.
By late morning, the snow changed to rain, turning the city into a slushy mess. But forecasters said temperatures were expected to drop, and the snow would continue through Thursday morning.
Heavy snow also was reported in the Golan Heights and the northern Israeli town of Safed, and throughout the West Bank.
In Ramallah, residents were surprised to see snow when they awoke. For some, it was their first time.
"I am just astonished with the snow. When I saw the snow this morning, I felt happy, my heart was laughing," said Mary Zabaro, 17.
In Amman, where a foot of snow fell, children used inflatable tubes as sleds. Some roads were temporarily closed.
Snow covered most mountain villages and blocked roads in Lebanon. The storm disrupted power supplies in most Lebanese towns and villages, exacerbating existing power cuts. Parts of the Beirut-Damascus highway were closed.
Temperatures in Syria dipped below freezing and snow blanketed the hills overlooking the capital, Damascus.
China is having one of it’s most severe winters ever...heating shortages, people stranded...
In the US, the upper Midwest is trying to recover from the bone-chilling, life-threatening, cold that is just now moving Eastward.
Snow in the Mid-East. Rare snow in Baghdad...
Is there a pattern here? (Global Warming? Naah!!)
Proof that God has a sense of humor.....Al Gore, please pick up the white courtesy phone for an important message....
Damn you Global Warming!!!! Will your curses never leave us?
Salt Lake local snow removal budget $1.5 M
Current spending (not even February yet) $2.5 M
Would be so much more humane if Hamas would launch swowballs from Gaza instead of katuysha rockets.
IOW, the Greens can't lose!;)
There was a rare snowstorm in Iran on Jan 10:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951220/posts
great pix there BTW
Again?
Global warming did it!!
Not here...in fact, it's been quite mild here lately.
I wonder if that weather that hit Jerusalem is heading east towards us, though.
I hate cold. :-P
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
China is having one of it’s most severe winters ever...heating shortages, people stranded...
In the US, the upper Midwest is trying to recover from the bone-chilling, life-threatening, cold that is just now moving Eastward.
Snow in the Mid-East. Rare snow in Baghdad...
Is there a pattern here? (Global Warming? Naah!!)
Or, is it God telling those global-warming idiots that He’s still in charge of things and when He says it’s hot or cold, then that’s what it is. Al, the con man, Gore will have to work a little harder to convince people to buy his carbon credits. Sorry, Al, bombed again. Aren’t you getting tired of failure?
Snow? Big deal. Sick of the stuff.
Now if we get a sandstorm in Connecticut, then that’s something.
Saw it with my very own eyes, I did. It got even thicker after I retreated inside, shivering.
Looks like smokers have to stand outside even over there.
Bbbut The Goracle tells us it’s “global warming”!
placemark
Time to get out the Thinsulate burka...
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