First of all, let me say that I am no expert on the subject of "extreme" weather. I am not a "storm chaser," nor do I have any desire to chase after tornados, meteorological anomalies, Biblical hailstones capable of apocalyptic disaster, or any other severe, life-threatening weather phenomena.  Oh, and I don’t ride roller-coasters either. 

However, I have always had some degree of interest in the science of weather going back to my elementary school days.  In my adult life I have gotten into weather-watching, even to the point that I participated in and successfully completed two levels of SkyWarn Training offered by the U.S. National Weather Service through our local ham radio club.  So with an introductory background in SkyWarn training, I think I have at least a basic understanding of severe weather and at a minimum, an awareness of those weather conditions that are extraordinary in nature.  Although I think the more frequently used reference to describe these unusual conditions is “extreme” weather rather than “extraordinary.”  

Regardless of what it may be called, I wanted to relate my “unscientific” observations from this particular event in hopes that someone, perhaps a bona fide storm chaser or meteorological expert with particular knowledge or interest of the Dead Sea area, will provide some additional insight about the incredible phenomena I was privileged to witness from my rare Masada vantage point on the evening of October 24, 2008. 

Or, perhaps someone will politely advise me that what I witnessed was not really such an unusual occurrence at all; that these types of violent electrical storms are not uncommon in the Judean Hills and especially around the Dead Sea.  However it is hard for me to believe such a spectacular display of light and sound is a commonplace weather event in this region of the world.  As I observed the extreme electrical disturbances occurring with such intensity all about me that evening, there was several times I thought I was possibly witnessing something of Biblical proportion before my very eyes; happening in a place where numerous significant Biblical events have been documented over the course of history and are even foretold in unfulfilled prophecy yet come. 

I was spellbound, amused, and awestruck by the dazzling events happening all around me. Surprisingly however, at no time was I fearful, nor did I feel endangered even though I was standing below conductive metal wires and antennas that we had erected earlier in the day.  We had made some of the best lightning rods in the Dead Sea region especially at this elevation on top of the Masada plateau, some 1,300 feet above the Dead Sea!  Perhaps my only real anxious moments occurred as I proactively disconnected the coaxial feed-lines coming from the antennas outside and to the radio equipment inside our 2,000 year old stone radio shack.  But at that point, the full brunt of the storm was still a few miles south of us. I just didn’t want to take any chances getting the radio equipment zapped.

A couple of times I actually heard the air sizzling around me and could smell burnt ozone.  In fact, if you listen carefully you can hear a couple seconds of the “crackling or sizzle” in the first segment of the accompanying video at about the 2-3 second mark.  I will describe a little more about the video and the photos I captured in a moment.

As I have now had time to reflect on everything, I don't recall ever seeing an electrical storm quite like this in my lifetime.  Oh, I have been in severe thunderstorms with passing frontal systems but the most violent and sustained lightning was relatively short-lived once the edge of the front passed.  That was not the case on this evening as the lightning persisted for at least two hours or more in the immediate vicinity of Masada and the Dead Sea below.  The lightning flashes seemed to be everywhere although the most exotic displays emanated directly above the Dead Sea and its coastal areas especially on the Jordanian side to the northeast of the Masada plateau.  It seemed to me that the storm lingered and although we probably received less than half and inch of rain on top of Masada I could see areas in the distance, visible by the lightning, where torrential sheets of rain were coming down.

Again, I am not sure if an extreme electrical storm of this magnitude is commonplace at the Dead Sea or at other areas of Israel and the Middle East.  I do know that Masada, some 410 meters above the Dead Sea, is reported to receive an annual rainfall measured at 50 millimeters or just less than 2 inches, so I can’t imagine too many opportunities for storms of this type.  One source I read says that this figure may be misleading because variances from year-to-year can be dramatic.  In fact, severe rainfall in this region can create sudden flash floods in the dry desert waterbeds or wadis as they are known.  However, weather records over time indicate that it is sunny in this region on average 330 days per year.

During last year's winter season at least four people were killed in 2 separate incidents while hiking in wadis stricken by flash floods.  So whileflash floods do occur in that region, I do not know if these sudden torrential rains in proximity to the Dead Sea are routinely accompanied by such severe lightning and thunderstorm activity.

The 2008/2009 winter rain season is just beginning and the evening I am attempting to describe was, I believe, the first rainfall of the season.  According to a few folks I spoke with from the area, this storm was actually an oddity with a rain coming so early in the winter season.  It too created some flash floods of its own in some of the surrounding Judean wadis flowing into the Dead Sea and the flooding actually closed Highway 90, Israel’s main north-south highway in that area, for several hours.

Now, I will try to detail the events of those couple of hours that evening and share not only the images that I captured but also some of my observations during this time.  I have developed a timeline documenting the events that should be fairly accurate as it is based on the timestamps from retained text messages sent back and forth between me and Stephanie during the storm as well as from the recorded timestamps on the video files I shot.

Incidentally, during my previous visit to Masada and the Dead Sea on January 22-23, 2008 it rained—but without the violent thunder and lightning.  Anyway I was “two-for-two” in the rain department at Masada.  Later we joked that I should change my name to “Rain Man.”

I sent another text message via cellphone to Stephanie: 

“CAN YOU SEE THE LIGHTNING TO THE SOUTH!!!! INCREDIBLE !!!”

It’s not often that I “yell” a text message using capital letters nor do I get carried away with exclamation marks, but I was already seeing some nice fireworks in her direction and wanted to make sure she was seeing the same stuff.  Although I realized I had a much better vantage point being some 1,300 feet in elevation above her location at the hotel by the Dead Sea.   

I will now share with the reader the remaining text messages exchanged by the two of us. The time stamps associated with our comments document the timeline of what was witnessed:

8:50PM from Stephanie:  “I’ll go out and look”

8:54PM from Stephanie:   “I’m outside now watching the lightning. And it’s thundering also. Wonder if it will rain. What a show.

8:57PM from Hal:  “I am standing at the very southern point by myself watching the most spectacular light show I’ve ever seen!  Amazing from up here!”

8:58PM from Stephanie:  “The power just went out here at the hotel.  It’s pitch black.”

8:59PM from Hal:  “Oh my!”

8:59PM from Stephanie:  “I bet it is. Wish I could see it from up there.

9:01PM from Stephanie:  “Power just came back. Who knows for how long? You be careful. I don’t want you to be struck by lightning.”

9:05PM from Stephanie:  “I wish it would come a downpour here and fill up the Sea, but be nice and sunny tomorrow.  J” 

9:12PM from Stephanie:  “It is pouring the rain here now”

9:12PM from Hal:  “It may be coming this way.  I just disconnected the antennas.”

9:14PM from Stephanie:  “People are outside saying “Hallelujah.”  Hope it doesn’t keep you all off the air for very long though”

9:15PM from Stephanie:  “Another new site. I’ve never seen anything like this before at the Dead Sea”

9:27PM from Hal:   “This is unreal!”

9:28PM from Stephanie:  “Beautiful, isn’t it?  What is Ruben saying about it?”

9:41PM from Hal:  “Ruben is not here, only me, Jerry and 2 friends of Ruben.  Started raining here now.  Am safe- don’t worry.”

9:42PM from Stephanie:  “The rain is easing up a bit now.  This will probably be short lived.” 

10:09PM from Stephanie:  “The storm has pretty much ended here so I’m off to bed.”

After I had gone out to the southern vantage point and realized the storm was actually coming in our direction, I knew I needed to disconnect the station’s antennas from the radio equipment.  Taking care of that as a necessary safety precaution, I then awakened the other guys so they wouldn’t miss the “show” although I knew the thunder would probably eventually rouse them.  It was about 9:15 PM.

I spent most of the next hour or so, outside in the drizzling rain with my back up against the wall at the entranceway to our compound.  This would have me facing north and provide a good 90 degree view to the distance from East to North, looking out over the Dead Sea.  The image at the left will give some idea where I was standing against the wall while shooting all but the first two video segments, those shot from the southern point of the plateau towards Stephanie’s direction, south of Masada.  I have also “grabbed” two of those frames, the first two below.  Interestingly, those cloud-to-ground (CG) bolts created an orange-ish hue.

As the storm advanced northward, the intensity of the thunderstorm activity and associated lightning became greater.  I think I saw every type of lightning possible including cloud to air (CA), sheet lightning or intra-cloud (IC), cloud to cloud (CC) and spider lightning.  Some of the most interesting lightning is depicted by what I would call “plasma” phenomena whereby balls of light out over the Dead Sea glowed in colors of blues, greens and reds.  I did not actually see typical lightning bolts associated with these flashes so I have no idea what they were.  They are visible in the videos and I extracted a few of the still images.  

In the slow motion clip at the 1:57 mark is another interesting phenomenon where you can actually see an explosion-effect coming up out of the water of the Dead Sea.  I have played this clip many times looking at it frame-by-frame and there is no mistaking that small lightning bolt creates a force that originates from the mineral rich water, exploding it upward into the air, perhaps a couple hundred feet. 

Other flashes are so brilliant, so intense that the brightness surpasses the light from the sun by several magnitudes. Perhaps my favorite display is a cloud to cloud (CC) flash coming across from left to right over the Dead Sea and a simultaneous cloud to ground (CG) is dropped almost as an afterthought.  Some of these lighting bolts seem to have a life of their own, taking a journey across the night sky or tracking where another bolt had just preceded it.  A few of the cloud to ground (CG) bolts appear to be so “wide” at their bases that I can only imagine this is some kind of illusion to be believable.

Again, referring to my point of view in the photo where I was standing at the wall, the reader will see that I was cut off to my left in the direction of the west due to the hillside and also limited in my view to the northern horizon because the plateau's terrain is at a higher elevation in that direction.  Therefore I was only able to capture several indirect affects of lightning outside my plane of visibility.  Thus the imagery of our Yagi beam antenna silhouetted by nature’s strobe light.  But I do not know how it could have been more impressive a show than what was taking place around the Dead Sea. 

So I can only speculate and ask a few questions.  Was this a typical thunderstorm at the Dead Sea?  How does its 32% mineral salt content, the richest on earth and the associated salt deposits around the Sea have an effect on the lightning activity?  Surely the conductivity of the earth ground is significantly different, more intense than from other areas.   Or the fact that this is the lowest point on earth and consequently 1300 more feet of atmosphere (ozone), does this help explain what I saw?  Or is there another reason beyond the scientific, beyond the explainable?

For a couple of hours on this evening of October 24, 2008, I found myself “oohing and aahing” out loud at something I will never forget.  This was possibly one of the greatest “shows” I have ever witnessed.  A time or two, I even cheered-on the Creator, thanking Him for sharing this marvelous display of His handiwork, a thrilling experience set in such an awesome setting.  And it was surely more exciting than any roller coaster ride!  Actually, I cannot use all the proper adjectives to describe what took place:  it was spectacular; breath-taking; awesome.  Yet too, it was a humbling experience that made my presence feel so insignificant, to know there was that much power and energy literally in the air all around me. 

I tried to put it all perspective, to make some sense out of it all.  Why was I allowed “backstage” to one of the greatest shows I would ever see in my life?  As I stood leaning up against a 2,000 year old stone wall with thunder and lightning all about me, it became clear to me that what was happening presented another message.  It occurred to me that I was here to do a ham radio contest.  As it were, my ham radio hobby was developed about 100 years ago when man harnessed the “spark” enabling him to send and receive messages in the form of lightning flashes.  Man’s achievements mastering this energy pales in comparison and is so inconsequential, so insignificant compared to the sparks I saw that evening as giga-watts of power were released into the Dead Sea ether.  Something that great could only come from one source, THE SOURCE.

A key factor in doing the 2008 CQWW from Masada was to commemorate the 60 year anniversary of the Nation of Israel.  When Ruben asked me and Jerry back in January 2008 to return for CQWW in October I could not pass up that opportunity, especially operating the contest from Masada, the last stand of the Jewish people before their great dispersion.   By any other measure, there is NO way they would or could ever return to the Land that had been Promised to them.  But G-d keeps his promises.  The "Dry Bones" rose up and were mended.  And so, if He can do the seemingly impossible by giving His people a nation in 1948 and blessing them for 60-years,  then He can surely command the lightning from the skies.  So I am humbled that G-d gave this weary traveler a fireworks show like never seen before to celebrate the Jewish people coming "full circle" and back to this historic fortress treasure reminding the world that G-d's promise has been fulfilled and certainly "Masada Shall Not Fall Again."