"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٣‎٠‎٣] (٧٣٨/٦١١)

600
•AJLUN AND NORTHERN BELQA
trees are grown at ‘Ain Janna. The willow flourishes along
running streams, where also oleanders grow almost to the size
of trees. Among shrubs forming undergrowth, mention may
be made of the laurustinus, cytisus, and arbutus.
Climate
The climate of the Belqa and of ‘Ajlun is healthy, as both are
high, and there is little or no stagnant water; but it can be
very cold, and the Arabs say of the Belqa that it is one of the
homes of cold. The chief rainy season begins in autumn, but
there may be heavy storms in spring or even early summer.
During a spring equinox Oliphant, travelling between ‘Amman
and Salt, experienced drenching rain and bitter cold, and
compared the weather to that of the Scottish highlands in
November. As a rule, rain does not fall between May and
October, but Schumacher in N. ‘Ajlun records heavy showers
in the second week of one June, lasting the whole day ; and on
May 18, 1913, regular cloudbursts over the Hamad south of
the Hauran, and farther S. again, beyond the Hejaz Railway,
caused destructive floods in the basins of the Zerqa and
Yarmuk (see Chap. XVII, p. 570). After the rain the hail lay
on the ground for hours to the depth of 2 | ft., the tempera
ture having fallen from a sultry heat to a considerable degree
of cold. Snow falls heavily every winter in El-Kurah and
J. ‘Ajlun ; in the more northerly, but lower, region including
Es-Siru, El-Wustiyeh, El-Kefarat and Beni Juhma, it falls
only once in two or three years, and hardly lies more than
a couple of days. In February, 1898, snow fell heavily at
Hesban for two days, rendering the Kerak road very difficult.
In the first part of the year the nights and early mornings are
often frosty. In the N. of Es-Siru the thermometer in March
has registered 4 degrees of frost. At ‘Amman, Tristram
found ice on the water-basins in early May. In June the
nights are cool and the early mornings cold in the valley of
the middle Zerqa. In high summer it may be oppressively
hot, though as a rule a north-westerly breeze blows from about
9 a.m. until sundown. Maximum temperatures which have