Extreme bad weather this Thursday 9 February 2023 in the South and part of the Adriatic sector, at least until tomorrow, then over the weekend the sun and heat will return to all of Italy.
A Mediterranean hurricane, or Medicane from the synthesis of the words MEDITERRANEAN hurriCANE, is in fact about to hit Sicily and beyond. Storm winds, torrential rains and historic snowfalls are coming, especially between the eastern part of the island and lower Calabria.
Meteorologists confirm that the cyclonic structure scares part of the South and could cause problems even in eastern Sardinia. It is a cyclone rising from Tunisia with a 'hot heart', as they say in meteorological jargon, that is, with a temperature in the center of the vortex higher than in the external areas.
Normally an extratropical cyclone presents an opposite picture, having a warm heart means a greater intensification of winds and precipitation phenomena: in other words, snowstorms are arriving on Etna and Aspromonte, accumulations of fresh snow greater than a meter and a half in 48 hours.
Concern is growing also thinking about the torrential rains that are forecast until tomorrow, especially in Ionian Sicily. From Portopalo di Capo Passero to Messina the cumulative rainfall could exceed 200 mm, that is 200 liters per square meter or, to give a further and obvious example, double the contents of a bathtub spilled on every square meter of the territory.
This could potentially cause flash floods, and a high hydrogeological risk due to mudslides: a red alert has been triggered in Sicily.
Meanwhile, the possibility of having a Medicane in February, remote until a few years ago, is not excluded in the next few hours mainly due to 2 factors: the influx of cold air from Russia and the presence of warm and humid air on the sea, still a reminder of the boiling year 2022, the hottest in Italian history.
The mix of Russian Arctic air and warm sea will favor the deepening of this disastrous cyclone, with characteristics similar to hurricanes, also defined as TLC, Tropical Like Cyclone: in short, whether it reaches hurricane intensity, whether it has tropical characteristics or not, the Tunisian Cyclone will bring torrential rains and historic snowfalls.
Winds will also obviously be strong with hurricane gusts expected from the afternoon on the Strait of Sicily, where the sea will also have waves of 8 meters. The highest waves are expected around Pantelleria, but also on the Sicilian Ionian coast a maximum height of up to 5-6 meters is not excluded with widespread and sudden storm surges.
Finally, for the sake of forecasting, in the next few hours we also expect possible local snowfall on the Adriatic beaches from Romagna to Puglia, and biting frost from North to South, on the coldest day of winter 2022-2023.
Article published on 9 February 2023 - 10:16
