It does happen more often, I found 2 good exaples in the Mediterranean Sea:

This one is not so obvious, off the coast of Tunesia, sept 17 2003

This one however bears all the visible characteristics of a hurricane. Note that it formed on january 13th 2005 over SST of 16 degrees C (61 degrees F). It carried 133 km/h (83 mph) winds and the eye survived for more than 30 hours. It had formed out of a cold front and was moving south. Combine all that and you have sinned against the NHC bible for 100%, and still it was there.

I guess meteorology is just not well enough understood to cope with this kind of systems.

IR

VIS

the 'hurricane' between the ionian sea and libya happened in 1995, but that's just semantics. the 2003 system happened.. well, you're dutch so you probably remember how abnormally hot that year was. there are a couple of others w/o documented pics i've seen... one in 1969 and another in 1982 which appeared to be tropical or subtropical. that beven guy probably pays these oddballs the most heed. there are hybrid systems like these in other basins as well, but they don't as often get attention--hard to ignore something in the med. because if it moves somebody gets hit. -HF

Sorry, that 2005 one should off cource be 1995

As a Dutchman I would indeed remember the 2003 summer, if I were there

but I spent that whole summer in the US, missing the first nice and hot summer in Holland in 60 years