Powerful storm forms in Mediterranean Sea, strong winds, huge waves, heavy rain, snow and ice expected
Image credit: EUMETSAT - Natural Color Enhanced image acquired 10:30 UTC, January 24, 2019.
A big and powerful storm has formed in the Mediterranean Sea over the past 24 hours. Powerful winds, huge waves heavy snow, rain and ice are expected to impact most of southeastern Europe.
"The first in a series of at least three upcoming cutoff lows over the central Mediterranean will cause excessive snowfall for parts of southeast Europe over the next 2 days," Severe Weather Meteorologists (SWE) said. "The deep low will deepen rapidly over the northern Tyrrhenian sea on Thursday, deepening to close to 980 hPa central pressure. It will cause a windstorm over the W-CNTRL Mediterranean and move into the central Mediterranean / Ionian sea by Friday."
"Large waves affect the western Mediterranean on Thursday, with maximum wave height reaching 8 – 9 m (26 – 29 feet) on Menorca, and 6 – 7 m (19 – 23 feet) on Mallorca (significant wave height is 1/2 to 2/3 of these values) and up to 10 – 14 m (33 – 46 feet) along parts of the coast of Algeria. … Also expect major waves across southern and central Mediterranean, particularly on the western and southern coast of Sicily, Lampedusa and Malta. Waves reaching maximum heights up to 8 -10 m (26 – 33 feet) are expected there on Friday, pushing towards the eastern Mediterranean and affecting the coast of Libya and western and southern Crete with waves up to 8 -10 m maximum height."
Satellite imagery courtesy EUMETSAT. Acquired 10:30 UTC, January 24, 2019.
A ship with 47 refugees onboard is facing severe weather conditions at sea and is asking any safe harbor in Europe:
Wir sind mit einem Medicane konfrontiert, einem seltenen Wetterphänomen. Die #SeaWatch3 sucht Schutz vor bis zu 7 Meter hohen Wellen, Regen und eisigem Wind. An Bord sind 47 Menschen, die letzten Samstag aus Seenot gerettet wurden. Europa, wir brauchen einen sicheren Hafen! pic.twitter.com/U09meu4khJ
— Sea-Watch (@seawatchcrew) January 24, 2019
Image credit: NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP/VIIRS. Acquired January 24, 2019
There is the potential that this storm could be distinguished as a medicane, a more tropical-like cyclone moving through the Mediterranean Sea, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Eriuc Leister said.
A large and powerful storm, which could be dubbed a 'medicane,' will bring impactful weather to millions of people from Italy to the Balkan Peninsula: https://t.co/99xceDHwRI pic.twitter.com/3S8NZFjeip
— AccuWeather (@breakingweather) January 24, 2019
Buckle up, this is just another powerful storm expected to affect Europe over the next two weeks.
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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