2. P. Alpert, H. Shafir and D. Issahary, "Recent changes in the climate of the Dead Sea Valley", Climatic Change, 7, 1-25, 1997. Earlier Work: Wind, temperature and humidity measurements at the Dead Sea starting in the 1930s as well as 3-D model simulations all seem to indicate a statistically significant change in the local climate of the 3Dead Sea region.

4. Dec.Nov.Oct.Sep.Aug.Jul.Jun.MayApr.Mar.Feb.Jan. Month Hour Param. + 1.4 *** + 1.1 *** ==+ 0.6 * + 0.7 *** + 0.4 * ===+ 1.0 *** + 1.1 *** 08 + 0.9 * ==+ 0.4 * =+ 1.0 *** =+ 0.8 * ====14T (C) + 1.6 *** + 1.2 *** =+ 0.6 * + 1.0 *** + 1.5 *** + 0.9 *** + 1.2 *** ==+ 1.0 * + 1.3 *** 20 ====+ 1.2 * =======08 =====- 1.8 * ======14RH (%) =- 4.4 * =- 3.0 *** =- 2.7 * ======20 ====+ 0.5 * ====+ 0.9 * =+ 0.9 * 08 ========+ 1.0 * + 1.1 * ==14WS (m/sec) + 0.7 * + 0.9 *** + 0.9 * ===+ 1.5 * + 0.7 * + 0.9 * + 1.0 * + 1.3 *** =20 + 2.1 *** + 4.6 *** + 2.7 *** + 4.6 *** + 5.8 *** + 5.5 *** + 4.3 *** + 5.0 *** + 5.8 *** + 3.8 *** + 2.8 *** + 1.9 *** monthlyEVAP (cm) Sdom Significant changes of the average hourly meteorological parameters at Sdom. New period (1995-2004) against previous period (1970-1994)

5. Dec.Nov.Oct.Sep.Aug.Jul.Jun.MayApr.Mar.Feb.Jan. Month Hour Param. + 0.9 * + 0.8 * ==+ 0.6 * + 1.0 *** =====+ 0.8 * 08 + 1.2 *** + 0.8 * ===+ 0.8 *** =====+ 0.9 * 14T (C) + 1.4 *** + 1.2 *** + 0.7 * + 0.8 *** + 1.2 *** + 1.7 *** + 1.0 *** + 1.1 *** ===+ 1.3 *** 20 ==+ 2.1 * =+ 2.0 * =+ 2.9 *** =+ 2.3 * ===08 ==+ 2.8 *** =+ 1.5 * =+ 1.6 *** =====14RH (%) - 3.0 * ====- 1.6 * ======20 ============08 ============14WS (m/sec) ==+ 0.6 * + 0.8 *** + 1.0 *** + 1.0 *** + 0.9 *** =+ 0.6 * =+ 0.7 * =20 ============monthlyEVAP (cm) Eilat Significant changes of the average hourly meteorological parameters at Eilat. New period (1995-2004) against previous period (1970-1994)

11. Sdom Evaporation Change 2000s Compared to 1960s

13. ΔĒΔĒ

14. ΕviΕvi

15. Fr i

16. Summary and conclusions The evaporation from the Dead-Sea is important to the local industries. It was found that the pan evaporation in Sdom has increased by about 70 cm/y from the 1960s to the 2000s. One explanation is that the rise in evaporation is a local phenomenon because of the drying of the lake. This drying has caused the local Dead-Sea breeze intensity to reduce. This breeze that used to temper the climate has therefore caused the temperature to increase, the relative humidity to decrease, and thus it causes the pan evaporation to increase in Sdom. Another local climate change is the intensification of the Mediterranean breeze entering the Dead-Sea as a result of the reduced interaction of this wind with the opposing but weakened Dead-Sea breeze. A very different contribution to the evaporation rise is the increasing effect of the global warming. The hotter and drier synoptic systems have increased their frequencies. The Red-Sea Trough which is a hot and dry system has nearly doubled in frequency during last 50 years. Also, the hottest system of the year-the Weak Persian Trough has increased frequencies on behalf of other cooler summer systems.

17. Most of the 70 cm/y evaporation increase were due to the intrinsic evaporation rise in the Red-Sea trough (about 30 cm/y) and the Weak Persian Trough systems (about 40 cm/y). It was found that both the global as well as the local effect are contributing to the evaporation increases. It seems that till the 1990s the local effect was the dominant one, while later on probably the large-scale effect due to the global warming becomes the dominant factor of the evaporation increase at the Dead-Sea.

18. Wind channeling by the Dead-Sea wadis By: H. Shafir, F. Jin, Y. Lati, M. Cohen and P. Alpert The Open Atmospheric Science Journal 2, 139-152, 2008

19. The south Dead-Sea satellite picture of observational stations (in red) and wadis (in blue) used in this study

20. Surface wind flow pattern (black arrows, unit is m/s), contour of topography (red, dot red line indicates the negative height of topography with interval 50 meters) and contour of wind divergence (blue, dashed, unit is ·10-4 s-1, contour interval 2·10-4s-1) for the Zeelim Wadi at 3:00 UTC 6th Sep 2005 Zeelim Wadi Flow at 3:00 UTC 6th Sep 2005

21. Same as previous figure, but for the Chemar Wadi