Medicane

A mesoscale cyclone that develops over the Mediterranean Sea and displays tropical-like cyclone characteristics: a warm core extending into the upper troposphere, an eye-like feature in its center with spiral cloud bands around an almost windless center, and a nearly symmetric sea-surface wind circulation with maximum wind speed within a few tens of kilometers from the center. A medicane develops mainly through a combination of baroclinic and air–sea interaction processes. In some medicane cases, the latter process dominates, and the development becomes similar to that of hurricanes, possibly reaching comparable intensity and damage potential.

Miglietta, M. M., and Coauthors, 2025: Defining medicanes: Bridging the knowledge gap between tropical and extratropical cyclones in the Mediterranean. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 106, E1955–E1971, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0289.1.

Term edited 22 January 2026.