Tornadoes increase as waters warm in the Mediterranean

To begin, you should know that, hurricanes and storm surges are not exactly the same thingeven though they really look like it. What they have in common is that they have a rotating column of air and both are wind swirls or hurricane winds. The only real difference between a hurricane and a storm surge is the storm that gave birth to it.

Hurricanes are one of nature’s most destructive phenomena.arises from the base of storm clouds, the cumulonimbus, and can produce winds of up to 500 km/h, can last for hours and travel hundreds of kilometers, the most extremes occur in the USA, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and Mexico.

in Spain We have evidence of hurricanes, some of which are quite devastating, but occurring in uninhabited areas. They are generally between 90 and 600 meters wide.

The rotation on the ground is cyclonic, like the movement of the children’s superiors, and they suck in the surrounding air, picking up everything that comes in their way. This is why we often see them as dark in color because of the dirt and the bits of houses or fences they find in their path. The portal Eltiempo.es explains that they move with the movement of the cloud.

Instead, water hoses are normally associated with ‘congestion’ cumulus.It forms over lakes and oceans, but it also forms from the base of large Cumulonimbus clouds. They are normally 450 meters tall, but can reach up to 900 meters, being isolated or in groups, the sign of their formation is sometimes a shadow on the water from the swirling air. They draw curved orbits that can last up to 15 minutes.

Hurricanes and climate change: What is the relationship?

Now, when we talk about hurricanes and tornadoes, what is the relationship between these phenomena and climate change? Why is its presence increasing in the Mediterranean?

To answer this question, go to: the the laws of thermodynamics they tell us that An important parameter for the development of a hurricane is sea surface temperature..

The reason for this is a warmer sea provides more energy to a hurricane, making it particularly violent.

As long as these hurricanes stay at sea or hit non-populated areas, it’s fine. However, when these phenomena touch the ground through residential areas, cities or major industrial centers, we find ourselves with very serious damage and sometimes tragedies, says meteoreologist Daniele Ingemi.

A new scientific article published in the international journal Scientific ReportsIt explains exactly why a sea that is warmer than normal (that is, has a higher-than-climatic average temperature) can stimulate these phenomena, such as those recently observed in southern Sicily.

In this study, the authors take as an example the hurricane that hit the port area of ​​Taranto, Italy, and the ILVA factory on November 28, 2012, which killed one person and caused 60 million euros in damage.

During that hurricane, The temperature of the Ionian Sea was about +1 °C above the climatic average of the period. (This is a very close average, since it refers to the twenty years between 1985 and 2005, and thus relates to a period when global warming had already advanced), Ingemi adds.

The warmer the sea, the more hurricanes occur.

Using sea temperature data, they applied a high-resolution (about 1 km grid) weather model. ability to accurately reproduce the trajectory of the supercell this led to the hurricane Taranto.

The same authors made another simulation with the exact same model, but this time they took sea temperatures close to the climatological average of the period as a reference.

This latest simulation only showed how it is at sea temperature. -1°C (so on average), the famous supercell would not have formed and as a result the hurricane would not have developed.. Conversely, as the temperature increases +1°C the hurricane would have been more violent.

The study, in which researchers such as Mario Marcello Miglietta, Jordi Mazon, Vincenzo Motola and Antonello Pasini participated, He underlined how the Mediterranean is becoming the scene of such acts of violence more and more frequently.

When a certain temperature value is exceeded, its density will increase faster and it will have inevitable reflections in our regions.

Numerous Spanish experts have already confirmed the gradual warming of Spanish Mediterranean waters, which only facilitates the conditions for the emergence of hurricanes.

Reference work: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13170-0

…..

Contact address of the environment department: crizclimatica@prensaiberica.es