Medicanes bring heavy rains and winds
Photos by Crometeo.hr
Several news portals in Croatia, including Index.hr reported that a rare meteorological occurrence, a „medicane“ or Mediterranean Hurricane is forming above the Adriatic and that it should reach our shores on Thursday. Shortly after the news broke, Crometeo (Croatian weather forecast portal) reacted by publishing an article on the characteristics of this weather anomaly and stated that they will be able to say for certain whether we will experience this sort of weather by tomorrow morning noting that there is a small but nonetheless very real possibility of it happening in our area.
Crometeo’s article mentions that a similar cyclone occurred in south Dalmatia in 2008 and that it showed several characteristics of a medicane. Storm passed through the wider Dubrovnik area and it was followed by strong winds, high waves and heavy rains.
Medicanes, just like tropical storms, form over the sea and usually weaken by the time they reach the shore. However, with the rise in temberature which we have been experiencing lately, it is possible that we may be seeing medicanes more often.
Medicanes only form a few times a year as a hybrid of tropical and outer-tropical cyclone and they are rare in the Mediterranean because the temperature of the sea and the humidity are not high enough.
Should the Croatian Weather Bureau issue any news regarding this possible weather occurrence, we will keep you posted.
