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If you’ve ever been to Israel during winter months, you may have noticed that the same degrees of cold in the Holy Land somehow feel colder than in Europe, for instance. 

“Outside you probably won’t notice a significant difference between, say, 10 degrees in Israel and 10 degrees in Europe. But when you go inside, you’ll feel it because our buildings, our homes, our apartments are not built to insulate us well from the cold temperatures,” climate expert Prof. Colin Price tells ISRAEL21c. 

Price is a professor of atmospheric science at Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences in Tel Aviv University (TAU). He is also the head of TAU’s Climate Crisis Initiative PlanNet Zero.

“In Europe, the buildings are very well insulated, with central heating, so the cold remains outside. The windows are also well insulated, and often double paned, so that you have some air insulating between the two glass sheets. Even if it’s cold outside, that cold — or heat — doesn’t really penetrate,” he notes.

He says because of the lack of insulation, the warm air from a heater or cold air from an air conditioner leaks out through windows and under doors, making it necessary for more constant heating or cooling. 

In cold winter or hot summer, Price says, it’s the same inefficiency at play.

“It’s physics, if you’ve got a cold object and a hot object, the heat goes from the hot to the cold until they’re equal in temperature, and then there won’t be any transfer of heat anymore.

“In the winter, heat is leaving the home, going outside, and in the summer, the heat’s coming from outside and into the house, which means we have to use more air conditioning to get to the temperature that we’re interested in.”

Colder in the desert

Price adds that cold may also feel colder in arid areas where the air is dry, like the Negev Desert. 

Ordinarily, “Moisture in the air acts like a blanket, trapping some of that heat so it’s a little bit warmer, especially in winter,” he explains.

“In the Negev, for instance, we don’t have that blanket, and all that heat leaves the surface at nighttime. In the summer [the Negev] is much hotter [in the daytime], but at nighttime it’s much cooler there than in Tel Aviv, which is very humid and has lots of moisture.”

He says that water vapor may be the reason why it feels less cold in Europe, which boasts vast bodies of water, compared to certain places in Israel.

“The less water vapor you have, the more you feel the cold on your body because the air is colder. When you have water vapor all the way around you, it acts kind of like a blanket,” he adds. 

Cracking the building code 

Price explains that construction of insulated buildings is complex and expensive, making it less of a priority for Israel where winters are relatively mild and brief. 

“There are various building codes. Green construction is more expensive, but in the long term it saves you energy because you have to heat or cool your buildings much less. It would also save us on our electricity bills if we built better and had better insulation,” he notes. 

When it comes to the summer, Price explains that construction codes in Israel have not been keeping pace with climate change and rapidly rising temperatures in the region.

“Fifty years ago, the temperatures in Israel were slightly different, especially in the summer; it wasn’t as hot as it is now. Structures that were built back then were not built for extremely warm temperatures,” he says. 

He adds that certain municipalities, such as Tel Aviv, are adopting construction regulations that require “a certain level of insulation and green technologies,” while the construction industry is also slowly evolving. 

“Unfortunately, people in the construction industry want to sell quickly and cheaper than the competition. Meanwhile, people who purchase an apartment are not thinking of future savings in electricity bills. They should be.” 

The post Does cold feel colder in Israel? appeared first on ISRAEL21c.

The post Does cold feel colder in Israel? appeared first on ISRAEL21c.

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