Continental polar outbreaks into the Levant and eastern Mediterranean

Continental polar outbreaks into the Levant and eastern Mediterranean regions originate in vast continental regions over Asia and Europe, causing respective unique weather conditions - cold, dry, and stable. These north-easterly winds have important environmental implications for agriculture, cold stress, and air pollution, which were the motivation for this study. They are exemplified here by statistical and synoptic study of such events over Israel. Seventy-two days of such outbreaks were observed during 6 years (1983-1988), all of them between October-May associated with different synoptic patterns. The typical duration of these events was of two categories: short events of 1-2 days, and long events of 4-5 days. The latter are the result of 'quasi-stationary' systems whereas the short ones are due to the passage of disturbances over the eastern Mediterranean.