The warming is here: more hot days and longer hot weather events compared to the seventies

Warming in the summer, warming in the winter, warming inside and outside the cities - these are the main findings that were presented at the conference that dealt with climate change in Israel, held in Haifa as part of the National Knowledge Center for Assessing the Consequences of Climate Change on Israel operated by the University of Haifa

Warming in the summer, warming in the winter, warming inside the cities and outside them - these are the main findings presented at the conference that dealt with climate change in Israel, held at the university as part of the National Knowledge Center for Assessing the Consequences of Climate Change on Israel operated by the university.

Avner Porshafen from the Climate Division of the Meteorological Service presented data regarding the temperatures in Israel collected by the service. According to him, in a similar test they conducted in 2009 in the interior areas of Israel, they found that in the last 50 years there were no significant temperature changes in Israel, but as soon as they performed the test for all places in Israel, the picture changed: starting from the 2000s, there is a clear warming, when the temperatures in the 2000 are higher than those from the 50s (the full picture is: high temperatures in the 50s, a decrease over the decades and then an increase again in the 2000s, which even surpasses that of the 50s).

He further added that not only the average temperatures are higher, but also the sequence of hot years, with the average temperature in the years 1998-2010 being 20.5 degrees, while the average in the years 1951-1963 was 19.9 degrees. "The period of the last 15 years is the hottest period since 1951, even if you exclude the summer of 2010, which was exceptionally hot."

Prof. Hadas Saaroni from Tel Aviv University, who checked the temperatures over the past 35 years, added that the number of hot days (over 33 degrees) per year has also increased, compared to the 70s and that the number of heat waves (hot days in a row) has also increased. Prof. Saaroni also presented a change in trend - if until the 90's the summer was getting warmer, but the winter actually got colder, since the 90's the Israeli winter is also in a warming trend.

Dr. Oded Pocheter of Beit Berel College, who studied the climate in Be'er Sheva (an urban area) compared to Hatzeri (a non-urban area), noted that in the last 30 years a significant increase in temperatures and humidity was found in Beer Sheva compared to no change in Hatzeri. He further added that if in the years 1967-1976 heat loads beyond mild to moderate were not measured in the summer in Beer Sheva, in the years 1997-2007 there are on average about six hours of heavy heat load.

The Steering Committee on Climate Change is one of 7 committees on various topics operating within the Center for Climate Change Preparedness, which was established with the funding of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the leadership of the University of Haifa. The aim of the center is to collect the knowledge that exists today in every field and propose a national policy.