Meteorologists recorded the hottest day in Israel for 2025 last Thursday, Maariv reported.
The weather station in Sdom reported that the temperature was 45.1°C, only 0.3°C higher than the previous nationwide record.
In 2019, six years from Thursday’s record, the Sdom station also recorded the hottest temperature for Israel on record at a whopping 49.9°C.
In general, climate experts warn that Israel is warming at an unprecedented rate.
Israel is heating up
“The entire Middle East, including Israel, is in a very climate-sensitive region becoming drier with more droughts and less rainfall. Each year breaks the previous year’s heat record,” Mor Gilboa, CEO of the Israeli NGO Zalul, told The Jerusalem Post.
“We are getting more and more extreme,” said Amos Porat, head of climatic services at the Israel Meteorological Service. “In the next decade or two, we can expect an average of five heatwaves per year that each last as long as five days.”
Gilad Ostrovsky, chief forester at Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, told the Post that it’s difficult to see past the glaring threat of climate change, especially given the fact that the Middle East is warming much faster than the global average.
“That means less rain, longer, hotter periods, droughts, really difficult conditions for humans, but also for trees and for the natural environment. It’s a real threat, and it has a component of uncertainty. We’re not sure what will happen. We have to think for the long term and do what we can to make sure that the open lands will remain, not just for the 77 years to come but for the future.”
Shir Perets and Maayan Hoffman contributed to this report.