The winds in Palestine, as in all countries which approach the tropics, are periodical, and governed in no small degree by the course of the sun. About the autumnal equinox, the north-west begins to blow with frequency and strength. It renders the air dry, clear, and sharp; and it is remarkable that on the seacoast it causes the headache, like the north-east wind in Egypt. We may further observe, that it usually blows three days successively, like the south and south-east at the other equinox. It continues to prevail till November, that is, about fifty days, when it is followed by the west and south-west, called by the Arabs "the fathers of rain." In March arise the pernicious winds from the southern quarter, with the same circumstances as in Egypt; but they become feebler as we advance towards the north, and are much more supportable in the mountains than in the low country. Their duration at each return varies from twenty-four hours to three days. The easterly winds, which come next in order, continue till June, when they are commonly succeeded by an inconstant breeze from the north. At this season the wind shifts through all the points every day, passing with the sun from east to south, and from south to west, to return by the north and recommence the same circuit. At this time, too, a local wind, called the land-breeze, prevails along the coast during the night; it springs up after sunset, lasts till the appearance of the solar orb in the morning, and extends only a few leagues to sea. Travellers have observed that thunder, in the lowlands of Palestine as well as in Egypt, is more common during the winter than in summer; while in the mountains, on the contrary, it is more frequent in the latter season, and very seldom heard in the former. In both these countries it happens oftenest in the rainy season, or about the time of the equinoxes, especially the autumnal; and it is further remarkable that it never comes from the land side, but always from the sea. These storms, too, generally speaking, take place either in the evening or morning, and rarely in the middle of the day. They are accompanied with violent showers of rain, and sometimes of uncommonly large hail, which, soon covering the face of the country with stagnant water, give rise to a copious evaporation. The phenomenon alluded to by the prophet Elijah is still found to diversify the aspect of the eastern sky. Volney remarks, that clouds are sometimes seen to dissolve and disperse like smoke; while on other occasions they form in an instant, and from a small speck increase to a prodigious size. This is particularly observable at the summit of Lebanon; and mariners have usually found that the appearance of a cloud on this peak is an infallible presage of a westerly wind, one of the "fathers of rain" in the climate of Judea.[191]