Throughout the land of Israel (and neighboring lands), there are only two seasons: wet or winter (October through March) and dry or summer (April through September). Moist westerly winds blowing off the Mediterranean Sea produce the rain, while east winds blowing from the area of Arabia produce the warm and dry conditions.

In the hill country of Israel, which is most of the land, it rained during only two seasons of the year. It rained just before the planting season at the end of the summer in the fall. This rain was critical, since it loosened up the hardened, sun-baked soil, so that it could be plowed and planted. It also had to rain toward the end of the growing season to bring the crops to maturation (Social World of Ancient Israel, p. 43, by Matthews and Benjamin). These were the former (fall) and latter (spring) rains to which the Scripture make reference in several places (Jer 5:24; Hos 6:3; Joel 2:23).