Weather radars showed on Saturday evening that around 1,600 lightning strikes have occurred around central Israel within the span of a single hour.
Although the storm as of yet was neither unusual nor extreme, as forecasters originally predicted, the meteorological behavior of the storm hitting Israel is nonetheless "something that is incredibly rare this far east in the Mediterranean," according to the UK Met Office on Twitter.The fire department prepared itself for the stormy weather that was expected over the weekend, stating that special units were instructed to be on full alert next to places at high risk of floods.The electric company prepared itself, as well, saying that the expected weather led to reinforcement of the call center and certain units in the field.The weather report stated that there would be local rainfall along with thunderstorms and hail in the south and on the mountaintops. Southern and eastern rivers were expected to flood, as well.The term "medicane" is a combination of "Mediterranean" and "hurricane."On Friday, the state declared a state of emergency that remained in effect until Saturday evening.As of late Thursday afternoon, the medicane spanned a 300-mile width across the extreme eastern Mediterranean Sea and was parked roughly 100 miles south-southwest of Cyprus, according to The Washington Post.Ezra Taylor contributed to this report.