Mountain of snow
Photo: Yaron Brenner
Snow in Tel Aviv?
(VIDEO) White mountain of real snow, exported directly from Mount Hermon in north greets Tel Aviv residents Wednesday morning, bringing frozen pleasure to city where not one flake of snow dropped since 1950s
(VIDEO) Tel Aviv residents woke up Wednesday to find a surprising sight in the town's main Rabin Square: A two-and-a-half meters-high pile of white, flaky snow exported straight from Mount Hermon in the north.
Video: Yaron Brenner
The refreshing, unusual display, which stood in contradiction to the hazy weather in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning, was the initiative of the city council as homage to the Torino Winter Olympics.
The complex operation to transfer the big amount of snow from the Hermon to the heart of Israel began Tuesday night, when 60 cubic meters of snow were loaded onto four giant refrigerated trucks that promptly made their way to Tel Aviv. In the early morning hours, the trucks arrived at the city and emptied their white cargo into the square.
Traditional custom
The export of snow from the Hermon has already become a traditional custom in Tel Aviv, which has not seen a flake of snow drop since the 1950s.
The town's residents and especially young children, were thrilled to find the frozen wonder on their way to school, and rushed to jump on the white mountain and throw snowballs at each other.
Hillel Partok, spokesman for the Tel Aviv Municipality, said that "there is nothing more fitting than snow in the white city. Ever since the 1950s no snow fell in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. We invite the residents and their kids to come down here and enjoy a winter fest and snow games just around the corner."
