‘Medicane’ is not just a weather buzzword. It’s a real phenomenon

news7g10/28/2021

1 2 minutes read

'Medicane' is not just a weather buzzword. It's a real phenomenon

If the terminology sounds to you want a intelligent combination of “Mediterranean” and “hurricane,” then you’ll be able to most likely piece collectively the place they kind and what they do. Nevertheless, there are notable variations (and similarities) between a hurricane and a medicane — not simply in the place they develop, however how they behave.

Medicanes vs. hurricanes

“Medicanes are very very similar to hurricanes,” says Dr. Richard Seager of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia College. He instructed CNN that as a result of medicanes are “geographically confined over the Mediterranean Sea and are surrounded by land” they’re sometimes smaller than a hurricane and infrequently dissipate faster.

We’re accustomed to seeing a hurricane kind over heat tropical oceans, however a medicane can evolve and even maintain itself with considerably cooler water. Hurricanes require floor water temperatures of 26°C (79°F) to kind and strengthen, whereas medicanes have been identified to form within water temperatures of only 15°C (59°F).

One other necessary distinction is the time of the 12 months after they develop. Because the Atlantic hurricane season winds down from its peak months, we glance to the Mediterranean basin for potential formation. Medicane formation often happens from September to December, based on CNN meteorologist Michael Man.

A medicane forms southeast of Italy as shown in this satellite image from October 27, 2021.

Regardless that winds can change into damaging throughout the core of a medicane, they hardly ever obtain Class 1 (119kph / 74mph) hurricane power. Generally the exception happens, corresponding to Medicane Qendresa, which struck Malta and Sicily in 2014, inflicting vital injury to property. Right here, sustained winds reached 111 kph, with gusts topping 150 kph. This was sufficient to uproot trees, topple electrical poles and demolish walls of buildings.

In September 2020, western Greece was struck by a powerful medicane named Ianos. It brought on property injury and flooding to Lefkada Island.

Energy was taken out from winds that reached 100 kph (62 mph) simply earlier than landfall, as seen inside this wind map from 2020.

Just like a hurricane, the clouds of a medicane swirl round a central eye-like construction, which is the place the strongest a part of the storm is situated.

Devastating impacts from a medicane, corresponding to flooding and mudslides, can stretch a whole bunch of kilometers from the middle of the storm because the outer rain bands method land.

Medicanes are uncommon

Medicanes will not be a daily incidence.

In accordance with Seager, they’re fairly uncommon, with “sometimes one or so forming per 12 months within the western Mediterranean basin.”

Due to this, says Seager, it is onerous to know if there are any climate-related impacts on frequency or depth. Hotter sea floor temperatures within the Mediterranean can enable the storms to tackle extra tropical appearances and traits, growing the wind speeds and making the storms extra intense.

Nevertheless, “some modeling research have proven that local weather change would possibly make Medicanes much less widespread however extra intense after they do kind, which is analogous to mannequin projections of Atlantic hurricanes.”

A 2017 study showed that medicanes are more likely to change into an even bigger downside because the planet warms, due to human-caused local weather change — with stronger winds and heavier rainfall.

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