JERUSALEM, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers have found that the weather in the country has been heating up in recent decades at a pace of about 0.25 degrees Celsius in each decade, the Hebrew language newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
The study, published in the International Journal of Climatology, was led by Yitzhak Yosef, a researcher at the Israeli Metrological Service and Tel Aviv University, located in the center of the state.
According to the research, there has been a warming trend in Israel since its establishment in 1948, which has intensified in the last three decades.
At the same time, there was a downward trend in precipitation in Israel, which is emphasized mainly after a few strong climate events.
The findings are based on analysis of extreme weather events measured in 34 temperature stations and 60 rain stations throughout Israel.
It was also found that the average minimum temperature increased by an average of 0.24 degrees Celsius in the last three decades, while the average maximum temperature increased by 0.19 degrees Celsius per decade.
The study showed that in the past three decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of "high heat periods" with at least six consecutive days.
There was also a 7-percent increase in the frequency of particularly hot nights, and a decrease in the number of particularly cold nights.
The data showed that in the last three decades, except for five years, the winter was warmer than the multi-year average between 1961-1990.
The study also indicated a decrease in the number of days in which precipitation was recorded at 10 millimeters or more.
