🇵🇸Palestine

Palestine comprises two non-contiguous territories between roughly 31° and 32.5°N (the West Bank covering roughly 5,655 km² and the Gaza Strip spanning 365 km² along the Mediterranean coast), producing a compressed yet diverse climate gradient across the Levant.

The West Bank landscape rises from the Jordan Valley plunging to approximately −400 m near Jericho (among the lowest inhabited places on Earth) through the central highlands where Ramallah sits at 880 m, Nablus at 550 m, Hebron at 930 m, and Bethlehem at 775 m, creating a dramatic west-to-east topographic descent of over 1,300 m within just 60 km. Gaza's coastal plain lies near sea level stretching 41 km along the Mediterranean.

This extreme relief produces distinct climate zones: hot-summer Mediterranean (Köppen Csa) across the West Bank highlands with wet winters and hot dry summers, hot semi-arid (BSh) on the Gaza coast, transitioning to hot desert (BWh) in the Jordan Valley around Jericho where temperatures soar and rainfall virtually disappears.

Ramallah sees January highs of 12°C with nights near 7°C and July highs of 28°C with about 720 mm of rainfall concentrated almost entirely October through April; occasional winter snowfall dusts the highlands, and Storm Alexa in December 2013 blanketed Ramallah, Bethlehem, and surrounding areas with over 30 cm of snow. Nablus has January highs of 13°C with nights near 6°C and July highs of about 29°C with about 650 mm. Hebron at higher elevation records January highs of 11°C and July highs of 29°C (nights near 5°C and 19°C) with 470 mm.

Bethlehem, in the same highlands, has a similar climate with about 700 mm. Gaza on the Mediterranean coast has milder winters, with January highs of 18°C and nights near 9°C, and July highs of 31°C with 390 mm falling primarily in winter, while humid sea breezes moderate summer heat. Jericho in the Jordan Valley exemplifies extreme desert conditions with January highs of 19°C, nights near 4°C and July highs of 39°C with a mere 200 mm annually, giving it a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh).

The all-time temperature range extends from a few degrees below freezing in the highlands during severe winter storms to 46.4°C at Jericho. Major climate events include the historic December 2013 Winter Storm Alexa that brought exceptional snowfall to the region, accelerating Dead Sea level decline at roughly 1.0 meter per year threatening the lowest basin on Earth, flash floods in wadis when rare heavy rain falls, and mounting water-security pressure from declining aquifer levels.

Our archive covers 7 Palestinian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Rafaḩ, with average highs around 32.4°C, while Hebron has the coldest January nights, with average lows near 4°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.7°C.