Ed Dunham
Former Meteorologist & CFHC Forum Moderator (Ed Passed Away on May 14, 2017)
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For the last couple of days, a rather uncommon event of a tropical cyclone in the Meditteranean Sea has produced flooding rains over Sicily. The system, currently located south of Malta, reached tropical storm strength Tuesday. Since then, northerly windshear has displaced most of the convection to the south of the center with a few showers over Tripoli, Libya. The system is probably now a tropical depression. A front approaching from the western Med Sea will likely maintain enough shear ahead of it to prevent reintensification. The center has been quasi-stationary for the past two days. An oddity, but they do infrequently occur in that region. The system has not yet been classified by SAB (which now has responsibility for that region of the world) but it has been closely monitored by Italy.
Italy Satellite Animation
Weather at Luqa, Malta
ED
Edited by cieldumort (Mon Nov 07 2011 01:59 PM)
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cieldumort
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I'm not sure if this is the same Mediterranean cyclone Ed wrote about on the 2cd - considering several days have gone by and I was not paying attention on that day. Given that it is the same general area, it may or may not be. Very little information is available on the Internet about this/these storm/s at this time, so this is what we know as of now:
A Mediterrnean Sea cyclone is now formally being tracked as 01M (For Mediterranean Sea), as of the today, the 7th of November.
As of 07/1800UTC, SSD estimated the center to be at 41.1N 5.3E, and assigned it a satellite-based T2.5 intensity estimate, roughly equivalent to most cyclones in the 35MPH - 45MPH range, and often used to assign an estimate of 40MPH. Officially, a T of 2.5 corresponds with 40MPH.
It is now up on , although it is up on their site as "99L" - a bit of a stretch, as the "L" is for features in the Atlantic basin. While it is very close to the extreme eastern Atlantic, it is obvious that it is over the western Mediterranean.
Nov 7 2011 Invest 99L (01M)
Convection associated with 01M is relatively shallow at present, but it does appear to be a warm-core tropical cyclone.
Tropical cyclones in the Mediterranean Sea are rare, but not unheard of.
A vigorous Mediterranean cyclone in 1995 was likely a hurricane at peak intensity:
1995 Mediterranean Sea Hurricane
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LoisCane
Veteran Storm Chaser
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Thanks for posting this.. I would have missed it otherwise. Do the years "weather wise" have much in common? I'd be curious on that and how the patterns in Europe might be similar or not similar.
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http://hurricaneharbor.blogspot.com/
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vpbob21
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I've been watching this area a bit the last few days, and although I could be wrong, I am thinking this is not the same system from a few days ago. It appears that the original system got kicked out by a deep trough that swung across Spain and France, then the northern part lifted out and left a deep cutoff that drifted SE across Spain and into the Mediterranean a couple days ago.
Italy and France have been in the news lately due to massive flooding that has been occurring. Regardless of whether this is the same system or a different one, it has the potential to be devastating if it drifts north or NE toward the coast. The globals seem to want to keep it fairly stationary while gradually filling it, but the models don't always handle these types of systems well.
Pressures seem to be falling slowly along the coast of France, ranging from 1009 to 1011 mb.
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Ed Dunham
Former Meteorologist & CFHC Forum Moderator (Ed Passed Away on May 14, 2017)
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Loc: Melbourne, FL
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This is indeed a different system. The earlier cyclone was captured by a front that moved through the Med the following day. I think that the current system is the third one in the Med this year - very unusual. It still has excellent form.
ED
Sat24 - Italy
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cieldumort
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(LINK TO STORY ABOVE)
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Rich B
British Meteorologist
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Porquerolles, an island just off the southern French coast was reporting gusts to 154km /hr , 96mph very close to the core of the tropical feature
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Rich B
SkyWarn UK
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