Weather experts are waiting to see whether temperature records are shattered later this week as a massive heatwave sweeps the country, reaching its peak on Wednesday and Thursday.

Amos Porat, director of Climate Services at the Israel Meteorological Service (IMS), told the Times of Israel on Sunday that the eastern part of the country was expected to be hardest hit, from the Hula Valley and the Sea of Galilee in the northeast down to the Arava Desert in the south.

Temperatures in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee are expected to hit 49°C and 47°C respectively (120°F and 116.6°F) on Wednesday and Thursday. The record for the area, is 45.9°C (114.6 °F).

Predictions are that the city of Beit She’an, south of the Sea of Galilee in the Jordan Valley, will register 48°C (118.4°F), breaking a record of 46.3°C (115.3°F) registered in the area in the past. Further inland in the northern hills, the city of Karmiel will swelter in 45°C (113°F) and 44°C (111 °F) on those two days, beating an area high of 43.5°C (110.3°F).

Afula, in the Jezreel Valley, will steam at 44°C (111°F) on both days, just shy of a local record of 44.5°C (112°F) .

Jerusalem........

© The Times of Israel