How often is there snow in the holy land?

Answer 1

Other than the slopes of Mount Hermon (which get snow every year), there is noticeable snow about once every three years. Today's event (Dec. 13-14, 2013) was a once-in-thirty-years kind of thing. It snowed for 36 hours straight in the mountains, reaching half a meter deep or more. The Feb. 23, 1992 snowfall was a once-every-100-years event, with snow at every point over 100 meters above sea level, and as far south as the Eilat Mountains, and over 1 meter deep at high elevations.

The nominal snowline in Israel is 800 meters, meaning that snow below that altitude is unexpected and above that is more common. No matter what the air temperature, the ground here is never below freezing, so the snow melts pretty quickly in any case (about 10 cm. melt-off per day). The coldest air temperature in recent history (1992) was -60C (+210F) in the Galilee mountains.

The only areas where snow can normally be expected are Israel's higher mountains: in the Golan, the high points of the Galilee, the Hebron mountains and Jerusalem.