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The Israel Meteorological Service was established in 1936 by the Palestine Mandate Authorities following the foundation, in 1935, of the airport at Lydda. Its founders and first members were mainly immigrants from Germany, headed by a well-known meteorologist, who had emigrated to Palestine as head of a small glider team at the 1935 Maccabiah Until then, there were only a few Meteorological observation stations which reported to the Egyptian Meteorological Service and a number of stations in the new Jewish settlements which were organized by the Hebrew University.
The importance of a general Meteorological Service which would extend beyond the sole requirements of aviation was understood from the start and intensive coverage by Meteorological observation stations throughout the country was arranged. Prediction for aviation, agriculture, shipping purposes and for the general public were all taken care of whilst the accumulated climatological data were used for purposes of research, planning and advice in the fields of agriculture and water, settlement and construction, health and the environment.
In 1948, on the birth of the State of Israel, the Jewish staff of the Meteorological Service were taken over by the Ministry of Transport where it extended its activities greatly, consequently constantly developing its scientific and technological means so as to keep up with events and developments which were taking place in the advanced international community and even contributed, to the best of its ability in international training and technical assistance. To be able to make its various forecasts the Service has continuously, day and night throughout the year, to collect observations from a great part of the world by means of international telecommunications which include a point-to-point link between its computer at Bet-Dagan and a large one at one of the main international centres at Offenbach, Germany. The continuously flowing data are processed by the Meteorological Service computer which uses an advanced forecasting model that ensures that the weather prediction is based on an objective mathematical application of the atmospheric processes. The processed information is then stored at the national archives of the Meteorological Service.
Among the auxiliary means used are satellite-cloud-images and reports from automatic stations.
The centre of the Meteorological Service is at its institute at Bet-Dagan which was built at the Meteorological Interchange. The building was specially built as part of an agreement between the Government of Israel and the UN Special fund for technical assistance.
