Touring Eretz Yisrael: Flash Flood Chasing In Nahal Qidron (video)

Yesterday we went on a family tiyul chasing flash floods.

In recent years, groups have formed to go look for, watch and photograph, rivers turning into flash floods from the heavy rains. This is mostly done in southern Israel, as the rain water flows down the mountain ranges from the heights of Jerusalem, and through the valleys and riverbeds of the Judean Desert. You can find these people updating websites and tiyul forum sites with information on where the floods are, where to watch them from, best places for pictures, where it is too dangerous and more.

It always sounded cool and exciting to me, but I never did it. until yesterday. Yesterday we took a family tiyul and decided to go down to the Dead Sea area and look for flash floods, considering we had had a decent amount of heavy rains over the 24 hours prior.

Driving along Highway 90 along the coast of the Dead Sea, Nahal Qidron was easy to spot in its flooding state. It was easy to spot because people were pulling their cars over to the side of the highway and parking to go watch the river.

A lot of these flash floods down south used to wash out the roads and bridges, as the water just flowed right across the highway. Many of those danger spots have been fixed up so the flood goes under the highway instead of on the highway.

Nahal Qidron was amazing. the water flow was strong, but not overly impressive, as you will see int he video. It looks like you could easily go in and enjoy the water (though it was muddy). I told my son that it is far stronger than it looks. After we crossed the highway, to see where it dumps out from the drain sewers, we saw how massive and strong it really is.