Rare Mediterranean storm around Sicily: no code red for Malta yet

The Maltese islands will be under the influence of an intense storm system that is developing in the south of Italy and Sicily tomorrow and Thursday.

Heavy north-eastern winds and floods are expected for the next 24 hours, as winds will be gearing up to force 7 North-to-North East on Wednesday evening and it will start to go down on Thursday evening.

Severe wind and rain pummelled the area around Catania, causing severe flooding on the weekend, after a rare Mediterranean hurricane slammed into Sicily and Calabria. A 67-year-old man was swept away by floodwaters Sunday and later found dead, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

The Malta Met Office said that it is highly likely that Malta experiences “heavy rainfall between Wednesday and Thursday […] It will definitely be stormy and people should look out for themselves but we are not looking at issuing a code red warning”.

Italian meteorologists said the stretch of sea between the Sicilian Canal, the Ionian Sea and up to the Libyan Sea was particularly warmer than the norm with values of 8°C above the average for the period. A cyclonic system will form later on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 October, assuming characteristics of extra-tropical cyclones similar to real hurricanes.

Although Mediterranean cyclones between the Ionian and Libyan seas have often touched upon Calabria and Sicily, these often reached characteristics comparable to a tropical storm.

Meteorologists this time said Italy could be facing a category 1 hurricane for the first time ever, with winds of over 120km/h, and with even more striking features such as the presence of a clearly visible eye around which cloudy bodies will rotate counter-clockwise, providing exceptional rainfall.

“As is often the case when attempting to predict this type of extreme phenomena, the trajectory can be often unpredictable, however at present it seems that this medicane is really going to hit Sicily strongly,” experts at ilmeteo.it said.

Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones, often referred to as medicanes, but sometimes also as Mediterranean cyclones or as Mediterranean hurricanes, are meteorological phenomena occasionally observed over the Mediterranean Sea.

On a few rare occasions, some storms have been observed reaching the strength of a Category 1 hurricane, on the Saffir-Simpson scale and one storm has been recorded reaching Category 2 intensity.

The main societal hazard posed by medicanes is not usually from destructive winds, but through life-threatening torrential rains and flash floods.