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| This "medicane" in the Mediterranean Sea is threatening Greece and Turkey |
Some of the storms are dangerous, some are not really that scary. At least for now. But they are interesting
"MEDICANE" THREATENS GREECE
A storm in the Mediterranean Sea has taken on a lot of the characteristics of a tropical storm or hurricane, which is somewhat unusual for that part of the world.
The Mediterranean is usually considered too small, and often too chilly to support any kind of tropical storm. But sometimes, a regular storm in that region will take on tropical characteristics, and that's what this storm has done.
Regular storms have warm and cold fronts, and often the strongest winds are away from the storm's center. Tropical storms feed off warm ocean water, are symmetrical and have thunderstorms and strongest winds closest to its center.
According to the British Met Office, the storm got its non-tropical start the way most non-tropical storms do. Cold air from the Balkans clashed with warm air from the Sahara and boom! You had a storm.
The storm then sat over the Mediterranean, and gradually become more and more like a tropical storm as it steep itself in the effects of the warm Mediterranean.
The "medicane" will bring gusty winds to parts of Greece and torrential rains to Greece and western Turkey. Flooding is definitely a threat.
Medicanes do happen from time to time. The Met Office notes there medicanes in the region in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
SUBTROPICAL STORM LESLIE
Some of us have pretty complicated backgrounds and so does Leslie, a storm out over the Central Atlantic.
It began life as a tropical storm, like how I described above. It had a warm core, it fed off toasty ocean water, looked pretty symmetrical and had its strongest winds near the center.
Then a cold front and a powerful upper level low pressure system plowed into Leslie. That turned it into just a regular storm system, with warm and cold fronts. It was a powerful one, with very strong winds and waves. It's sending rip currents and dangerous surf toward the East Coast as we speak.
Now, this storm is heading slowly toward the southwest, over warmer ocean waters. It's beginning to take on the characteristics of a tropical storm again. Right now it's a hybrid, know as a subtropical storm.
As it continues toward the southwest, it's expected to become fully tropical again, and grow into a hurricane. It's path is pretty unusual too, possibly heading almost due south for a time in a few days.
It's unknown if Leslie will ever become a threat to land. For now, it's kind of meandering out there.
HURRICANE ROSA TO SOAK ARIZONA OF ALL PLACES
A hurricane named Rosa was pretty powerful off the west coast of Mexico over the past few days. It's weakening, but it's taking a path that will take it across Baja California and into Arizona of all places
By the time it hits Arizona, Rosa will be just be tattered remnants of her former self. But the storm will spread torrential rains into the normally arid Desert Southwest, which will include a big chunk of Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada, including Las Vegas.
Flash flood watches are already up in this region, effective Monday afternoon into Wednesday. Rainfall rates might go to one to two inches an hour in this area, which is extraordinary for the Desert Southwest.
On the bright side, some of this tropical moisture looks like it will make it up into Utah and parts of western Colorado, which are very dry and under a forest fire danger at the moment.
We'll have to watch the remains of Rosa in a week or so. Its left over upper level energy could spark some heavy rain in the upper Midwest - places like Wisconsin and Minnesota- which have had flooding problems and is very wet already.
While this tropical situation in Arizona is kind of rare it is by no means unique. In October, 1983, the remnants of Tropical Storm Octave caused a disastrous flood in Arizona that killed 14 people and caused about $370 million in damage.
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