| Cyclonic storms that closely resemble tropical cyclones in satellite images
occasionally form over the Mediterranean Sea. Synoptic and mesoscale
analyses of such storms show small, warm-core structure and surface winds
sometimes exceeding 25ms-1 over small areas. These analyses, together
with numerical simulations, reveal that in their mature stages, such storms
intensify and are maintained by a feedback between surface enthalpy fluxes
and wind, and as such are isomorphic with tropical cyclones. In this paper,
I demonstrate that a cold, upper low over the Mediterranean can produce
strong cyclogenesis in an axisymmetric model, thereby showing that
baroclinic instability is not necessary during the mature stages of
Mediterranean hurricanes. |