{"id":612209,"date":"2026-09-10T22:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/612209\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:32:12","slug":"israel-preps-emergency-services-for-strongest-ever-el-nino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/612209\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel preps emergency services for strongest-ever El Ni\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health Ministry held a drill to prepare for a \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>\u201d event and other inclement weather events, the ministry announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o affects weather patterns globally because it warms the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which shifts atmospheric circulation and alters jet streams.<\/p>\n

In the Americas, parts of the northern US and Canada get warmer and drier, while parts of the southern US and southern South America face increased flood risk<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of altered atmospheric circulation, Israel and the Mediterranean region typically experience wetter winters with more intense storms. However, forecasters say this year is likely to feature a “Godzilla” El Ni\u00f1o, which could become the strongest on record.<\/p>\n

Notably, the world just experienced its joint-hottest month since records began, with August pushing the planet’s average global temperature<\/a> to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Combined with the effects of climate change, the phenomenon could make 2027 the hottest year on record.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o typically peaks around December, but Israelis could see more rain in early autumn because of the strength of this year’s weather event.<\/p>\n

It also means that some Israeli cities closer to sea level are at higher risk of flooding.<\/p>\n

The ministry’s drill tested the health system\u2019s preparedness for scenarios including floods, heavy snowfall, and strong winds. It also tested El Ni\u00f1o’s potential impact<\/a> on overall government systems, such as power and water outages, blocked access routes, damage to buildings, shutdowns of medical facilities, and the provision of care to at-risk populations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The response to health consequences that could result from extreme weather events and climate change was also examined, including increases in cases of rabies, West Nile fever, and other diseases.<\/p>\n

The drill was attended by representatives from hospitals, health maintenance organizations, Magen David Adom, the Fire and Rescue Authority, the Home Front Command, the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), and the Energy, National Security, and Welfare ministries.<\/p>\n

The Environment and Climate Change portal is produced in cooperation with the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Jerusalem Post maintains all editorial decisions related to the content.<\/p>\n

\"Ben-Gurion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Ministry held a drill to prepare for a \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d event and other inclement weather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[242,17387,3367,16338,85,46,43],"class_list":["post-612209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-environment","tag-flood","tag-global-warming","tag-health-ministry","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}