Israel Hit With Heaviest Snowstorm in 60 Years

Israel experienced its heaviest snowstorm in 60 years on Wednesday night and Thursday, closing down large swaths of Jerusalem. The snow should continue over the weekend and stretch down to the south of Israel. Israel, which is located in a desert region, is typically scant on snow, but that wasn’t the case this week, when a storm hit Mount Hermon in the north and then moved south.

Jerusalem has canceled school throughout the city, and Hebrew University cancelled its classes as well. Jerusalem’s mayor celebrated the snow as a “cause for celebration for Jerusalemites and the many visitors who come to see the world’s most beautiful city painted white.”

Air traffic at the major travel hub of Ben Gurion International Airport has been slowed, and in Tel Aviv, the boardwalk has been submerged in places thanks to heavy rainfall. Meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State John Kerry were postponed.