The tropics are known to be the regions of the world where you can lie on white sandy beaches all year round and retreat to the shade of palm trees when the heat is on its way. If you need more specific information for your GPS, you can find them between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Occasionally, however, it gets pretty uncomfortable in the tropics, depending on the area, a hurricane, typhoon or a simple tropical storm can ruin your beach vacation. If you don't care about that kind of thing and prefer a down-to-earth drizzle, you can go swimming in the Mediterranean with peace of mind.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) publishes a kind of telephone directory of tropical storms, the Tropical Bulletin. Everything that can be classified as a tropical storm is mentioned here in small messages every few hours until it disappears again. On November 7, 2011 at 18:00 UTC, 01M was mentioned here for the first time. 01M was active until 12 noon on November 9 and was the first official tropical cyclone in the Mediterranean.
A low pressure system hit the Mediterranean region last weekend, causing severe flooding in northern Italy and fresh snow in the southern very high mountains. Thanks to the long-known monster high over Central Europe, the low remained in the Mediterranean and was increasingly cut off from the rest of the circulation. This is referred to as a cut-off cyclone. In the long term, such a stationary low loses its frontal character and there is no longer a warm or cold air sector, as is usually the case.
Our Mediterranean low was not in the least impressed by its own isolation and took an example from its tropical colleagues, as they don't need fronts either. Instead, they feed on latent energy, which is released during condensation in high-altitude convection. The greater the temperature difference between cold high-altitude air and warm seawater, the more energy is available to the cyclone. Due to these processes, tropical storms have a warm core and develop what is known as an eye. Our low pressure system stranded in the Mediterranean also managed to do all of this, making a little bit of weather history in the process. You can read more about this at Colleague Powder-Oracle.
No weather change in sight
Unfortunately, the weather situation in the Alps will not change significantly in the foreseeable future. It will get a little colder towards the weekend, but will remain too warm for the time of year: omega clouds, sunshine, high fog, you know the drill by now. The only thing left to do is to let your gaze wander into the wide world: In Alaska, the strongest storm in 40 years is hammering the coast. It may not have made it to official tropical storm status like 01M, but it certainly reaches hurricane-force wind speeds. For true winter magic, the best place to go at the moment is Tehran. After record snowfall earlier this week, schools and offices remained closed and airports across the country were shut down....
You can see what the current conditions are like in Iran in the gallery
style="clear:both">
