Israel Bakes Under Record-Breaking November Heat: The Land of Miracles Prays for Rain
Things are heating up in Israel, and for once, it has nothing to do with Hamas, Hezbollah, or Tehran’s nuclear games. This time, it’s the heavens themselves that have turned the Holy Land into an oven.
On Tuesday night, Jerusalem, the city of prophets and parched prayers, recorded its hottest November night ever since the Israel Meteorological Service began keeping track in 1950. Temperatures refused to dip below 23.2°C (73.8°F), shattering the previous 2012 record of 22.1°C (71.8°F).
As if that weren’t enough, the capital’s daytime high on Monday hit 31.8°C (89.2°F), obliterating a 75-year record that had stood since the early years of Israel’s independence. The only thing standing in its way of a new all-time record is a number etched in the history books from 1941: 32.2°C (90°F).
Meteorologists warn that threshold could fall within days.
EXTRAORDINARY HEAT IN MIDDLE EAST
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) November 5, 2025
Most extreme event in world climatic history
Unprecedented minimums >30C in the Emirates islands
Absolutely unbelievable Minimum 23.2 Jerusalem
ABOVE SUMMER AVERAGE
Near 100% of N Hemisphere countries have broken records with the record margins pic.twitter.com/yHTf2PJ1My
“This Is Not Normal”: A Holy Land in a Heatlock
Dr. Amir Gevati, head of Israel’s Meteorological Service, described the current weather pattern as “unprecedented in its persistence and intensity.” With no rain in sight since the official start of the rainy season on October 1, the country is now entering November with a parched landscape more reminiscent of the Negev than the Galilee.
“The lack of precipitation has left the soil dry, the air heavy, and the vegetation stressed,” said a Meteorological Service official. “We’re experiencing a dangerous combination of heat and drought that has not been recorded in over a century.”
Indeed, experts are calling it Israel’s worst drought in 100 years, a staggering statement for a nation that has endured wars, blockades, and locusts.
Sea of Galilee Recedes, Faithful Turn to Prayer
The iconic Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), long regarded as Israel’s spiritual and hydrological heart, continues to recede. Water levels now sit 28 centimeters below the “lower red line”, a critical threshold signaling ecological distress.
In Safed, faith met desperation last week. Dozens of students from the HaAri school, joined by teachers, rabbis, and residents from Tiberias and nearby communities, gathered on the cracked shoreline of the shrinking lake for a mass prayer for rain.
Leading the gathering was Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu, a member of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate Council, who declared that “the power of prayer and hope can change even the course of the skies.”
This wasn’t the first such call to heaven: HaAri school previously held similar gatherings in 2003 and 2019, both followed by winters of “abundant rainfall.” Israelis, it seems, are once again looking upward, not just for inspiration, but for clouds.
Jerusalem heat reaches November record, center weather station reports ...Follow https://t.co/QtHKvuGJZk for more. https://t.co/xSR7yY59lT #NeverForget #NeverAgain #JewishLivesMatter #Israel #WeStandWithIsrael #StopJewHate #FightAntisemitism #EducateToEradicate #BringThemHomeNow…
— JEWISHLIVESMATTER (@JewishLives1) November 4, 2025
When Technology Isn’t Enough
Israel’s world-renowned desalination network, which now supplies much of the country’s drinking water, has buffered cities from immediate danger. Pipelines from desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast are even feeding water back into the Sea of Galilee in a bid to stabilize its levels.
But while modern ingenuity has solved the thirst of man, it has not yet saved the land itself. Natural crops, rain-fed pastures, and untended groves are suffering. Farmers report cracked soil, dying shrubs, and wilted trees in regions that would normally be vibrant and green by early November.
Israel, often described as “the land that made the desert bloom,” now waits for the skies to remember their part of the covenant.
A Year of Extremes
This summer, Israel endured a record-shattering heatwave with highs reaching 49°C (120°F), claiming two lives and setting fields ablaze across the south. The current autumn heat surge is a reminder that the country’s climate is changing, becoming more unpredictable, more intense, and more unforgiving.
Meteorologists expect temperatures to remain abnormally high through Thursday and Friday, with the possibility of breaking even the 83-year all-time heat record.
current weather in Jerusalem: clear, 26°C, 40% humidity, wind 5kmh, pressure 931mb
— Jerusalem Weather (@JerusalemIL) November 4, 2025
Faith, Science, and the Waiting Sky
Despite the pipelines, the prayers, and the prophets, Israelis know there is no substitute for rain, the ancient rhythm that renews the land every year. As November’s first half burns hotter than ever, the nation’s collective hope is simple: that heaven will soon open its gates.
Until then, the “Start-Up Nation” finds itself relying on something older than technology, faith itself.
