While the UK has seen very little snow so far this winter, countries such as Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Israel have been experiencing very cold conditions, with wide-spread snow.

Temperatures have dropped so much that in Turkey they have been below the monthly average by almost 10˚C.

This week did not get off to a good start for the region, with heavy rain in Israel causing severe flooding. These floods caused damage to many businesses, homes and important transport infrastructures.

However, during Wednesday night the airflow turned northerly, resulting in colder conditions and the heavy rain turning into heavy snowfall.

After sunrise, a thick layer of snow was starting to develop on roads, cars and buildings. Further snowfall is expected over the weekend and people have started to question what the authorities have in place to do about these extreme weather conditions for Israel’s largest city, Jerusalem.

The rate at which the heavy rain turned to snow was so fast that some roads have become inaccessible for buses and cars. The authorities have been countering the snow by salting and snowploughing as many streets as possible, and as quickly as possible.