Weather It Is (Drive Safely!)

Good Evening:

The Israel Meteorological Service has determined that last month was the seventh driest November in the last 80 years. As noted by Yaakov Cansor, of the Israel Winter Weather group, there was a persistent blocking high pressure system located over Greenland.  The high is part of a pattern stretching from Greenland to the subtropics "known as a negative NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation), [that] typically favors a trough of low pressure over northern and western Europe and a corresponding ridge of high pressure over southeastern Europe, bringing warmer and drier than usual weather to Israel."  You can read about it here: https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/NAO/.

However, as noted by Mr. Castor, since Dec began, the pattern has gradually changed to a positive NAO (https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/pna/nao.sprd2.gif), A ridge of high pressure has built over northwestern Europe, allowing storm systems and winter chill to drop further south over eastern Europe and into the eastern Mediterranean. We expect this pattern to continue for the next two weeks, bringing our first "real" winter rains this week, both Sunday night into Tuesday, and Wednesday into Thursday, with showers and chilly, damp weather continuing to the end of the third week of December. 

That's good new because as you all know we need the rain.  At the same time, folks are reminded to slow down and drive with greater distance between cars, to prevent accidents.

These car "accidents" are a strange thing.  Why? Well, we have had (but not recently) an unfortunate number of accidents that were not accidents at all, the last one left two children severely injured, and happened on the road outside my town when a Palestinian driver ran them over.  More recently, a young man (Israel Arab) crashed his speeding car into a family, killing the mother and her three week old baby.  One wonders, if this was also a terrorist attack. 

We don't really know if the last was or was not a terrorist attack, but the result was the same. When a terrorist kills someone, the secret service, police, and army are mobilized to find the person or persons responsible.  Yet, when someone kills someone in an "accident' on the road, that person just becomes another statistic (both the dead and undead).  Yet, over the last several years, if not decade, more than 3000 Israelis were killed in road accidents, while 146 died in terrorist attacks (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/number-of-terrorism-fatalities-in-israel).  That is more than 20 times the number of people killed by fellow Israelis than killed by our Palestinian neighbors!  Are drivers who drive without concern for their fellow drivers not just as bad?  Aren't they Road Terrorists?

If you don't want to be a road terrorist, then do the following: i) leave 1 car length between you and the car in front of you for every 15 km/h, ii) slow down when it's raining, iii) keep your eyes on the road.  Don't i) pass on the right lane or in a left turning lane, ii) text while driving, iii) read your phone or dial your phone, iv) weave in and out, v) tailgate.  (See, for example: https://www.safety.com/interstate-safety-tips/ ; https://www.bceo.org/safedrivingtips.html).

I'd also like to suggest that our police stop standing on corners and at stoplights to give out tickets, and get out on the roads, where dangerous driving occurs. 

In summary be courteous of other drivers; don't be a road terrorist. 

Barry Lynn