Well, if you have taken the time to read my last post about my trip to Israel, you would think that life may be wet – but very much wonderful, well that was day 1! Thursday morning I awake, and the rumors were that it was going to snow in the afternoon. My sister said do not go out and my Rabbi even was worrying about it. Well, I woke up and it was still raining, but not a snowflake in sky, which I just guessed was an over worried sister. Well, at 7 AM it was pouring rain, by 7:30 AM there were snowflakes, and by 8 AM there was a real inch of snow on the ground, which means Jerusalem was shutting down, and my winery dreams for the day were over.

You see, in Jerusalem, a few inches of snow is like a foot of snow in New York! My nephew works for the police, and by 8 AM he was all suited up and ready to go. Schools were confused, and they were asking kids to come in any way! By 9 AM, all of Jerusalem had shutdown, the stores were not opening, and schools had come to their senses and told the kids to stay home!

At this point there were a few inches on the ground and it was not letting up! What started to dawn on me was my greatest nightmare, my brother was just landing at Ben Gurion airport and he was not going to make it into the city! You see, the big disconnect here was that only Jerusalem, the surrounding elevated areas (Psagot, Beit El, Ramat Ruziel, etc.) and the north were affected by this, everywhere else it was life as usual. Once again, only the higher elevations were cold enough to have snow! By Sunday, when we were able to drive down to Teperberg Winery (more on that in the next post), halfway down Highway 1 – there was no more snow! I really wonder if someone stood at a certain point on highway 1, could they have had snow on one hand and rain on the other? Yeah I am that nerdy!

According to Haaretz: Vehicles are seen stranded in snow at the entrance of Jerusalem on December 13, 2013 following a snowstorm.

Thankfully, my brother grabbed the only thing that was going north at that time, the rakevet (AKA train). When he tried to go to the taxis at the airport, they all said they were not going to Jerusalem, so the only option left was the train. By the time he got on the train, it was standing room only, he was totally shocked! By the time he made it to Jerusalem, by 3PM or so, the first round of snow was just starting to melt and subside and the roads were clearing up. If we had made a run for it earlier in the day, and we had gone to Ella Valley, our car would have been stuck down there – as the highway did not open up again till Sunday! Read the rest of this entry →