A Mediterranean Tropical Storm?

Ernst, John A.; Matson, Michael

doi:10.1002/j.1477-8696.1983.tb04818.x

Cited by 83 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 2 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…The overview of this case is based on Ernst and Matson (1983) and Reed et al (2001). On 23 January 1982, a storm formed over the warm waters between Sicily and Libya while at 500 hPa a cut-off was observed over Tunisia.…”

Section: January 1982 Eventmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some medicane events have been analysed in depth by several authors, in order to document the appearance and evolution of these vortexes from observations and to explore physical mechanisms associated with their formation and maintenance from numerical simulations. At least three medicane events were recorded in the eighties (Ernst and Matson, 1983;Jansà, 1987;Rasmunssen and Zick, 1987), although three more cases during this period are included in recent lists Romero, 2011, 2013). In mid-January 1995, a well-studied example of a medicane occurred in the Ionian Sea.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Detection and thermal description of medicanes from numerical simulation

Picornell

Campins

Jansà

2014

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Tropical-like cyclones rarely affect the Mediterranean region but they can produce strong winds and heavy precipitations. These warm-core cyclones, called MEDI-CANES (MEDIterranean hurriCANES), are small in size, develop over the sea and are infrequent. For these reasons, the detection and forecast of medicanes are a difficult task and many efforts have been devoted to identify them.The goals of this work are to contribute to a proper description of these structures and to develop some criteria to identify medicanes from numerical weather prediction (NWP) model outputs. To do that, existing methodologies for detecting, characterizating and tracking cyclones have been adapted to small-scale intense cyclonic perturbations. First, a mesocyclone detection and tracking algorithm has been modified to select intense cyclones. Next, the parameters that define the Hart's cyclone phase diagram are tuned and calculated to examine their thermal structure.Four well-known medicane events have been described from numerical simulation outputs of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) model. The predicted cyclones and their evolution have been validated against available observational data and numerical analyses from the literature.

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Section: January 1982 Eventmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection and thermal description of medicanes from numerical simulation

Picornell

Campins

Jansà

2014

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…It has been suggested that the increased sea surface temperature in an anthropogenically warmed climate could lead to favorable conditions for the formation of hurricanes in the Mediterranean Sea (Gaertner et al 2007). After the advent of satellite meteorology in the last decades of the twentieth century, on the other hand, evidence emerged (Ernst and Matson 1983;Rasmussen and Zick 1987) indicating that a few mesoscale vortices showing a striking resemblance to tropical latitude hurricanes occasionally do occur over the Mediterranean Sea. Such storms exhibit a cloud structure characterized by a central eye surrounded by spiral-shaped cloud bands, and the strong winds associated can reach hurricane strength; the most intense storms of this kind have thus been termed Mediterranean hurricanes (medicanes).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediterranean Tropical-Like Cyclones in Present and Future Climate

2014

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The Mediterranean has been identified as one of the most responsive regions to climate change. It has been conjectured that one of the effects of a warmer climate could be to make the Mediterranean Sea prone to the formation of hurricanes. Already in the present climate regime, however, a few of the numerous low pressure systems that form in the area develop a dynamical evolution similar to the one of tropical cyclones. Even if their spatial extent is generally smaller and the life cycle shorter compared to tropical cyclones, such storms produce severe damage on the highly populated coastal areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. This study, based on the analysis of individual realistically simulated storms in homogeneous long-term and high-resolution data from multiple climate change scenarios, shows that the projected effect of climate change on Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones is decreased frequency and a tendency toward a moderate increase of intensity.

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“…It has been long recognized that hurricane-like cyclones can sometimes form over the Mediterranean (Ernst and Matson, 1983;Billing et al, 1983) where they are referred to as medicanes (Mediterranean "hurricanes"). Their structure, as revealed by satellite imagery, is often similar to tropical cyclones with a clear and quasi-circular eye surrounded by an eyewall and a roughly axisymmetric cloud pattern (see Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediterranean hurricanes: large-scale environment and convective and precipitating areas from satellite microwave observations

Claud

Alhammoud

Funatsu

et al. 2010

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Subsynoptic scale vortices that have been likened to tropical cyclones or polar lows (medicanes) are occasionally observed over the Mediterranean Sea. Generated over the sea, they are usually associated with strong winds and heavy precipitation and thus can be highly destructive in islands and costal areas. Only an accurate forecasting of such systems could mitigate these effects. However, at the moment, the predictability of these systems remains limited.Due to the scarcity of conventional observations, use is made of NOAA/MetOp satellite observations, for which advantage can be taken of the time coverage differences between the platforms that carry it, to give a very complete temporal description of the disturbances. A combination of AMSU-B (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-B)/MHS (Microwave Humidity Sounder) observations permit to investigate precipitation associated with these systems while coincident AMSU-A (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A) observations give insights into the larger synoptic-scale environment in which they occur.Three different cases (in terms of intensity, location, trajectory, duration, and periods of the year -May, September and December, respectively) were investigated. Throughout these time periods, AMSU-A observations show that the persisting deep outflow of cold air over the sea together with an upper-level trough upstream constituted a favourable environment for the development of medicanes. AMSU-B/MHS based diagnostics show that convection and precipitation areas are large in the early stage of the low, but significantly reduced afterwards. Convection is maximum just after the upper-level trough, located upstream of cold midtropospheric air, reached its maximum intensity and acquired a cyclonic orientation.

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A Mediterranean Tropical Storm?

Cited by 83 publications

References 2 publications

Detection and thermal description of medicanes from numerical simulation

Detection and thermal description of medicanes from numerical simulation

Mediterranean Tropical-Like Cyclones in Present and Future Climate

Mediterranean hurricanes: large-scale environment and convective and precipitating areas from satellite microwave observations

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