2:23am UK, Thursday December 09, 2010
The Middle East is in the grip of an almost Biblical drought which has brought the region's three major religions together to pray for rain.
Video: It may look inviting compared to arctic Britain - but people in Israel are seriously worried
Israel's main water source, the Sea of Galilee, is in serious trouble.
November saw it receive the least amount of water since records began in 1927.
While Britain and the rest of Europe battle arctic weather conditions, temperatures on Israel's coast remain in the mid '20s.
The month of November saw virtually no rainfall.
There has not been enough rain in the region for the last seven years.
Channel 10 weather forecaster Danny Roop told Sky News: "If I look at the the meteorology it's something we didn’t see for many years, many years, maybe from the beginning of the '60s. It’s really troubling for Israel."
Muslims pray for rain in drought-hit Jordan during a mass in Amman
The dangers of these dry conditions were made tragically clear last week with the country's worst ever forest fires, which claimed more than 40 lives and devastated thousands of acres of trees.
Agriculture is threatened by both the lack of water and seasonal confusion.
Unusually clement conditions, mean plants like fruit trees are now blooming, tricked into thinking it is spring.
The drought has brought the Holy Land’s three religions together to pray for rain
Jews, Muslims and Christians have held joint prayer sessions calling for divine intervention.
In Jordan, the government has been encouraging special prayers and fasting to ask for rain.
Water runs out at an artificial lake in Qaraoun, Lebanon
The desert kingdom now has an estimated shortfall of 500m cubic metres of water.
Lebanon is in similar trouble.
Forest fires broke out in the north over the weekend, though not on the same scale as Israel.
Not everyone was complaining when Sky News filmed on the beach in Tel Aviv.
Israelis were making the most of the unusual conditions, sunbathing and eating ice creams, while sparing a thought for people shivering through freezing temperatures in Britain.
This week saw one day of heavy rainfall before conditions turned hot and dry again.
More rain is predicted but water authorities say not nearly enough.
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