Israel
Israel Geography & Climate
Geography
Israel is about 470 kilometres long and as little as fifteen kilometres wide at its narrowest, and it packs four distinct landscapes into that space, running north to south in parallel strips.
The coastal plain
A flat, fertile strip along the Mediterranean holding most of the population and the main cities — Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, Ashdod — with continuous sandy beach for almost its whole length.
The central hills
Rising inland to the Galilee in the north and the Judean hills around Jerusalem, which sits at around 750 metres and is correspondingly cooler and drier than the coast. Mount Meron in the Galilee is the highest point inside Israel proper at 1,208 metres.
The Jordan Rift Valley
Part of the Great Rift system running from Syria to Mozambique. It holds the Sea of Galilee — a freshwater lake 210 metres below sea level — the Jordan river, and the Dead Sea, whose shore at around 430 metres below sea level is the lowest exposed land on earth. The water is roughly ten times as saline as the ocean, which is why nothing lives in it and why people float.
The Negev
Desert covering more than half the country’s land area and holding a small fraction of its people. It contains the makhteshim, erosion craters found almost nowhere else, of which Makhtesh Ramon is the largest.
Two seas and a flyway
The Red Sea coast at Eilat is only about twelve kilometres long but gives access to coral reefs at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. The country also sits on one of the world’s major bird migration corridors — around five hundred million birds pass through twice a year.
Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.
Climate Patterns
Israel has a Mediterranean climate in the north and centre and an arid one in the south, with a sharp division between a rainless summer and a wet winter and almost nothing in between.
Summer
From May to September it does not rain at all. The coast is hot and very humid — Tel Aviv around 30°C with humidity that makes it feel worse — while Jerusalem, at altitude, is a few degrees cooler and much drier, with pleasant evenings. The Dead Sea and Eilat regularly exceed 40°C.
Winter
From November to March the rain arrives, mostly in the north and centre and mostly in short heavy bursts. Jerusalem can drop close to freezing and gets a snowfall every few years, which shuts the city. The Galilee and Golan are properly cold, and Mount Hermon has a ski season.
The desert
The Negev and the Arava get very little rain, and what falls can arrive as a flash flood that fills a dry canyon within minutes — the commonest natural hazard for hikers here. Desert nights are cold year round, and in winter can approach freezing.
The khamsin
A hot, dry, dust-laden wind from the desert, most common in spring and autumn, which raises temperatures sharply and fills the air with sand for a day or two at a time.
A drying trend
Rainfall has declined measurably over recent decades and the Sea of Galilee has repeatedly fallen to critical levels. Israel now meets much of its drinking water needs by desalination, which is why the taps still run.