In recent years, the impact of cyclones with tropical characteristics in areas of the MediterraneanSea, also called Medicanes (MEDIterranean hurriCANES; Emanuel, 2005), has caused extensivedamage, particularly in coastal areas of Greece, Italy and North Africa. These cyclones have arelatively low frequency in Mediterranean areas, although they are associated with extremeweather phenomena (heavy rainfall, strong winds, and landslides). Therefore, the main goal of thiswork is to create an index of meteorological conditions that can determine favourableenvironment for the development of cyclones with tropical characteristics in the Mediterraneanbasin. For this purpose, we have selected some of the most intense Medicanes occurring duringthe last years. Using ERA5 data we study variables such as Convective available potential energy(CAPE), coupling index (CI; Bosart & Lackmann, 1995), Wind shear, Geopotential in 500 hPa andSea surface temperature (SST).The findings of this study reveal that the development of cycloneswith tropical characteristics in the Mediterranean is strongly linked to the formation of an intensetrough, which is exposed to strong convective processes (high CAPE and CI values), low wind shearat high levels and a Mediterranean Sea temperature above 15oC. The combination of all theseconditions at the same time is quite uncommon, so this could explain the infrequent and extremenature of this type of cyclones.
Gutiérrez‐Fernández et al. (Fri,) studied this question.