A New Refinement of Mediterranean TropicalLikeCyclones Characteristics

Mediterranean tropicallike cyclones (TLCs) are damaging weather systems, which form over the Mediterranean Sea, resembling tropical cyclones. These cyclones can drive important socioeconomic losses in coastal areas. However, due to their small size and the relatively recent investigation of these cyclones, there is currently no robust categorization of which Mediterranean cyclones can be considered TLC. . Therefore, in this work, we propose a method to differentiate cyclones that attain actual tropicallike characteristics in part of their lifetime, as they develop a warm core through intense convective processes. Several warmcore cyclones in the Mediterranean, which were analyzed in the literature, are studied using ERA5 reanalysis, to identify the environment where they develop and distinguish tropicallike cyclones from nontropical warmcore cyclones. Initially, the cyclone phase space is analyzed to distinguish the cyclones that have a symmetrical deep warm core. Subsequently, the temporal evolution of several parameters is considered, including the distance between the area of maximum tangential wind speed and the cyclone center. The main results of this study show that part of the analyzed cyclones have features similar to tropical cyclones. Some differences are observed between the cyclones analyzed: one category of cyclones develops in areas of moderatelow baroclinicity and intense convective processes, as occurs in tropical cyclones. Another group of cyclones develops in a strongly baroclinic environment with weak convective processes and intense vertical wind shear, as occurs in warm seclusions. Two cyclones, showing similarities with polar lows, are also identified. The results of this study propose a key to identify the Mediterranean cyclones that have tropicallike characteristics.