A rare, powerful Mediterranean storm has lashed southern Greece,Tunisia and Libya with torrential rains, flash floods and winds up to 55 mph, and it’s now on track to hit Europe. Called Zorba, the storm has been dubbed a medicane — a combination of the words Mediterranean and hurricane — and has features similar to hurricanes and typhoons.
Although it is not official terminology, the name separates the regional differences from tropical storms, cyclones or hurricanes. About one to two “Medicanes” occur per year, according to a study published in 2011, and the powerful storms usually occur during the months of September and October.
During this time, sea surface temperatures in the Mediterranean are still warm, allowing for the Medicane, which is a non-tropical storm when it first forms, to feed off the warm waters of the Mediterranean. Afterwards, the storm will begin to develop tropical-storm characteristics and strengthen over time.
While over the open ocean, the storm is likely to pick up more tropical-like features normally associated with hurricanes, such as gale-force winds and an eye in its center.
“It is has been more in the last 20 years that we have seen these being reported,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys. “The last third of the year, essentially fall and earlier winter is when we see them.”
Because Zobra was expected to bring heavy rainfall to greater Athens and the islands in the Aegean Sea and Turkey’s coast, most ferry services from mainland ports near Athens were cancelled and caused limited flight delays.
By: Maytinee Kramer
