

A wicked storm is tracking through the Mediterranean on Friday, causing damage in Malta with its wind gusts up to 90 mph. (NRL)

A wicked little storm has spun up in the Mediterranean Sea, contributing to a series of extreme weather events in southern Europe over the past few days which are expected to continue into next week.

The Mediterranean storm looks more like a hurricane than a mid-latitude cyclone, complete with a clearing in the clouds near the center that could even be mistaken for an eye. The storm crossed over Malta on Friday afternoon, local time. MeteoWeb.eu characterized the storm as “like a real hurricane.” Wind gusts in Bugibba, Malta peaked at 95 mph around 5 p.m., around the same time the pressure was dropping to 978 mb at the station. Despite the storm’s strength, it lacks in rainfall. The Bugibba station has only picked up 1.15 inches of rain since midnight.

Interestingly, this storm has shown some meteorological signs of being almost tropical in nature. While it lacked the high moisture content that is typical in tropical cyclones, the structure of the storm was looking similar to that in which we see in subtropical cyclones.

While they are extremely uncommon, tropical (or subtropical) cyclones are not totally unheard of in the Mediterranean. Almost exactly three years ago, a rare tropical cyclone formed in the area. The storm was given the name “01M” by NOAA’s satellite branch, and “Rolf” by the Free University of Berlin, though there is no agency that is formally in charge of tracking tropical cyclones in the Mediterranean.



Enhanced satellite imagery of the Mediterranean on Friday. (EUMETSAT)

Though Friday’s storm is forecast to weaken as it tracks east toward southeast Europe, it will have contributed to the week of extreme weather that southern Europe has been grappling with over the past few days.

Parts of Europe were slammed with heavy rain and snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, and yet another storm is approaching the region this weekend that has the potential to deliver another 20 inches of rain to parts of Italy by Wednesday.