Last year, Storm Daniel brought devastation to Greece, Turkey & Bulgaria before causing catastrophic loss of life in Libya. Heavy rain and thunderstorms produced more than a month’s worth of rain in a few hours. 

Storm Daniel was what’s known as a medicane, an extreme weather phenomenon that can occur over the Mediterranean Sea. Showing hurricane-like features and packing strong winds and heavy rain, these unique storms may become more intense as our climate warms. 

In this month’s episode of the Met Éireann Podcast, we are exploring how medicanes form, their impacts and the efforts made to understand and forecast them. Presenter Liz Walsh returns to the podcast to explore this topic with Noel, and they are joined by medicane researcher Dr. Florian Papillion, from the National Centre for Scientific Research in Toulouse, France.