Mario Marcello Miglietta

Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate ISAC

Mediterranean hurricanes, also known as medicanes, can cause significant damage to coastal communities. Consequently, they have been the subject of intense study in recent decades. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and Web-GIS applications are essential for processing and analyzing geographic data from various sources, particularly in the field...

The paper presents a model intercomparison study to improve the prediction and understanding of Mediterranean cyclone dynamics. It is based on a collective effort with five mesoscale models to look for a robust response among ten numerical frameworks used in the community involved in the networking activity of the EU COST Action "MedCyclones". The...

Plain Language Summary Mediterranean tropical‐like cyclones (TLCs) are damaging weather systems, which form over the Mediterranean Sea, resembling tropical cyclones. These cyclones can drive important socio‐economic losses in coastal areas. However, due to their small size and the relatively recent investigation of these cyclones, there is currentl...

The Po Valley in northern Italy is a hotspot for tornadoes in Europe in spite of being surrounded by two mountain ridges: the Alps in the north and the Apennines in the southwest. The research focuses on the case study of 19 September 2021, when seven tornadoes (four of them rated as F2) developed in the Po Valley in a few hours. The event was anal...

Cyclonic storms resembling tropical cyclones are sometimes observed well outside the tropics. These include medicanes, polar lows, subtropical cyclones, Kona storms, and possibly some cases of Australian East Coast cyclones. Their structural similarity to tropical cyclones lies in their tight, nearly axisymmetric inner cores, eyes, and spiral bands...

In the complex context of climate change and in a heavily populated area like the Mediterranean region, understanding and studying explosive cyclones (ECs) is crucial because of their potential to cause extreme weather events, including strong winds, heavy rainfall, and significant disruptions to human activities and infrastructure, as happened in...

Leveraging the Copernicus high‐resolution multi‐year Mediterranean Sea Surface Temperature (SST) dataset, 15 selected tropical‐like cyclones (TLCs) are analyzed with the objective of elucidating the anomalies of SST at the time of cyclogenesis and the connection between the change in SST during the cyclone lifetime and its characteristics. The long...

WIND RISK is a research project dealing with measurement and modelling of wind fields within thunderstorm cumulonimbus clouds and outflows at the ground (i.e., downbursts and gust fronts). The general objective of the project is to advance the knowledge about the processes occurring inside thunderstorm clouds responsible for strong outflows, and th...

This paper presents a model intercomparison study to improve the prediction and understanding of Mediterranean cyclone dynamics. It is based on a collective effort with five mesoscale models to look for a robust response among 10 numerical frameworks used in the community involved in the networking activity of the EU COST Action “MedCyclones”. The...

In September 2023, storm Daniel formed in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea as an intense Mediterranean cyclone. Its formation was accompanied by significant socioeconomic impacts in Greece including several fatalities and severe damages to agricultural infrastructures. Within a few days, the cyclone evolved into a tropical-like storm, i.e., medi...

Extreme atmospheric-marine events, known as medicanes (short for “Mediterranean hurricanes”), have affected the Mediterranean basin in recent years, resulting in extensive coastal flooding and storm surges, and have occasionally been responsible for several casualties. Considering that the development mechanism of these events is similar to tropica...

The present work analyzes the synoptic, thermodynamic, and microphysics characteristics of two Mediterranean cyclones that occurred in February–March 2023. The analysis is mainly carried out through the use of passive microwave (PMW) satellite measurements, which allow us to follow the cyclones’ evolution and state whether Helios and Juliette can b...

A record-breaking marine heatwave and anthropogenic climate change have substantially contributed to the development of an extremely anomalous and vigorous convective windstorm in August 2022 over the Mediterranean Sea.

Many cyclone detection and tracking methods (CDTMs) have been developed in the past to study the climatology of extratropical cyclones. However, all CDTMs have different approaches in defining and tracking cyclone centers. This naturally leads to cyclone track climatologies with inconsistent physical characteristics. More than that, it is typical f...

A methodological approach is proposed to provide an analytical (exponential-like) expression for the probability of occurrence of tornadoes as a function of the convective available potential energy and the wind shear (or, alternatively, the storm relative helicity). The resulting expression allows the probability of tornado occurrence to be calcul...

On 18 September 2020, Medicane Ianos hit the western coast of Greece, resulting in flooding and severe damage at several coastal locations. In this work, we aim at evaluating its impact on sea conditions and the associated uncertainty through the use of an ensemble of numerical simulations. We applied a coupled wave–current model to an unstructured...

The Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation module (FDDA) is used in combination with the WRF model for the analysis of two case studies of high tide (on 4 April 2019 and on 12 November 2019) that affected the Venice Lagoon in the recent past. The system is implemented in the perspective of an operational use for nowcasting of 10 m wind, which will be p...

On 2–3 October 2020, a heavy precipitation event severely affected northern Italy and in particular the western Alps, with rainfall amount exceeding 600 mm over 24 h. This event was associated with an upper-level trough over the western Mediterranean basin, a large-scale configuration typical of heavy precipitation phenomena on the southern side of...

A workshop on high-impact meteorological events in Italy was jointly organized by the newly formed Italia Meteo Agency (AIM) and the Italian Association of Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (AISAM) on September 27, 2022. The aim of the workshop was to promote the sharing of the experiences that all operational and research meteorological centers...

On the evening of November 12, 2019, an exceptional high tide – the second‐highest in the ranking since sea‐level data have been recorded – hit the city of Venice in northern Italy and its entire lagoon, damaging a large part of its historical center. A small warm‐core mesoscale cyclone, which formed in the central Adriatic Sea and intensified duri...

A methodological approach is proposed to provide an analytical (exponential-like) expression for the probability of occurrence of tornadoes as a function of the convective available potential energy and the wind shear (or, alternatively, the storm relative helicity). The resulting expression allows to compute the probability of tornado occurrence u...

An updated climatology of EF1+ (Enhanced Fujita category 1 or stronger) tornadoes in Italy (445 events in the period of 1990–2021) confirms that the central Tyrrhenian (CT) and the southeastern (SE) regions of the Italian peninsula represent two of the areas most affected by tornadoes in the Mediterranean. We performed a comparative analysis betwee...

On 18 September 2020, medicane Ianos hit the western coast of Greece resulting in flooding and severe damage at several coastal locations. In this work, we aim at evaluating its impact on sea conditions and the associated uncertainty through the use of an ensemble of numerical simulations. We applied a coupled wave-current model to an unstructured...

On 10 July 2019, a giant hail-bearing supercell hit the Adriatic coast of central Italy. Hailstones with a maximum diameter of 14 cm were reported in the city of Pescara between 10:00 and 11:00 UTC. In this work, the main synoptic and mesoscale features, responsible for the triggering and the development of the supercell, are analyzed using the WRF...

Complemented with the coupling of the most sensitive and challenging interaction between terrestrial hydrology and atmosphere, the Bhagirathi-Alaknanda basin of the Garhwal Himalaya requires advanced dynamic and most comprehensively coupled atmospheric-hydrological models for simulation of streamflows. WRF-Hydro model which is enhanced by integrati...

The duration of dust days (DDD) is one of the most important parameters that may worsen the effects of the presence of dust in the affected areas. Persistent pollution over consecutive dusty days can have particularly negative effects on the human respiratory system. The present analysis was conducted in Central Iran, where the phenomenon of dust i...

On 28 July 2019 an EF2 tornado affected a small rural area in central Italy causing several damages and one casualty. The tornado was spawned by a thunderstorm embedded in a linear convective system that crossed the central Tyrrhenian regions of Italy. The environment was characterized by high values of convective available potential energy (CAPE)...

Soil moisture is one of the most important parameters affecting dust emission flux. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of soil moisture on vertical dust flux in the central plateau region of Iran. In this study, the WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecast with Chemistry) model, with the GOCART (Global Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiat...

A new lightning–flash and convective initiation climatology is developed over the Alpine area, one of the hotspots for lightning activity in Europe. The climatology uses cloud–to–ground (CG) data from the European Cooperation for LIghtning Detection (EUCLID) network, occurring from 2005 to 2019. The CG lightning data are gridded at a resolution of...

A large number of intense cyclones occur every year in the Mediterranean basin, one of the climate change hotspots. Producing a broad range of severe socio-economic and environmental impacts in such a densely populated region, Mediterranean cyclones call for coordinated and interdisciplinary research efforts. This article aims at supporting these e...

The first Special Observation Period (SOP1) of HyMeX (Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean eXperiment) was held in fall 2012 and focused on heavy precipitation events (HPEs) and floods in the northwestern Mediterranean. Nine intensive observation periods (IOPs) involved three Italian target areas (northeastern Italy, NEI; Liguria and Tuscany, LT...

A large number of intense cyclones occur every year in the Mediterranean basin, one of the climate change hotspots. Producing a broad range of severe socio-economic and environmental impacts in such a densely populated region, Mediterranean cyclones call for coordinated and interdisciplinary research efforts. This article aims at supporting these e...

In the months of November 2012, 2014 and 2018, four tornadic events affected southeastern Italy (Calabria and Apulia regions). Tornado-spawning supercells hit the same regions, had similar trajectories, and were characterized by common synoptic conditions. The events are analysed through the use of multiple observational tools; large-scale and meso...

The first Special Observation Period (SOP1) of HyMeX (Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean eXperiment) was held in Fall 2012 and focused on heavy precipitation events (HPEs) and floods in the northwestern Mediterranean. Nine intensive observation periods (IOPs) involved the three Italian target areas (north-eastern Italy, NEI; Liguria and Tuscan...

On the morning of September 26, 2007, a heavy precipitation event (HPE) affected the Venice lagoon and the neighbouring coastal zone of the Adriatic Sea, with 6-h accumulated rainfall summing up to about 360 mm in the area between the Venetian mainland, Padua and Chioggia. The event was triggered and maintained by the uplift over a convergence line...

Recent advances in numerical modeling, satellite data, and coastal processes, together with the rapid evolution of CMEMS products and the increasing pressures on coastal zones, suggest the timeliness of extending such products toward the coast. The CEASELESS EU H2020 project combines Sentinel and in-situ data with high-resolution models to predict...

The model initialization with high-resolution SAR wind data provided by the Sentinel-1 mission and its impact on the meteorological model WRF-ARW simulations is discussed. The activity is performed within the Horizon 2020 CEASELESS project, focusing on one of the target areas, the northern Adriatic Sea (northern-central Mediterranean). The Sentinel...

An analysis of synoptic patterns and mesoscale precursors is produced for Italian tornadoes for the period 2000–2018. Anomaly maps of different parameters are extracted from ERA-5 reanalysis. To highlight typical large-scale configurations, a clustering analysis is applied to define different regional clusters, representative of areas affected by a...

Characteristics of extratropical cyclones that cause tornadoes in Italy are investigated. Tornadoes between 2007 and 2016 are analyzed, and statistical analysis of the associated cyclone structures and environments is performed using the JRA-55 reanalysis. Tornadoes are distributed sporadically around the cyclone location within a window of 10° × 1...

Two tropical‐like cyclones in the Mediterranean Sea, aka medicanes, are analysed herein by means of numerical simulations. The cyclones, which were recently investigated in Miglietta and Rotunno, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 2019, 145, are reconsidered in the present study, in which we focus on their respective preconditio...

Dust storms are a major natural hazard to human health. Severe erosive storms in parts of the Central Plateau of Iran have made the situation very difficult for the inhabitants, to the extent that some areas have become depopulated. To better understand this phenomenon, dust day counts at 37 synoptic stations from 1999 to 2018 were analyzed. Dust d...

Hailstorms are relatively frequent in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, northeastern Italy and, for that reason, a network of manual hailpads has been set up there since the late 1980s. On July 4, 2007, a record number of hailpads in the network were impacted by hail (115 out of about 360 total stations). To the best of the authors' knowledge, no o...

This work represents an initial step toward the coupled ocean-atmosphere-aerosols modeling of severe storms in the Mediterranean basin. This is realized extending the classical Charnock formulation of surface roughness over sea and consequently the determination of air-sea momentum fluxes in numerical models. To improve the forecast of severe Medit...

The Mediterranean storm “Vaia” developed within a typical autumn synoptic circulation, generally associated with heavy rain conditions over the western Mediterranean basin. Intense precipitation was responsible for floods over Italy between 27-30 October 2018 and the storm was accompanied by explosive cyclogenesis, storm surge and extremely intense...

Dust and sand storms are among the major threats to central Iran. These phenomena pose irreparable risks to natural ecosystems and human societies, including effects on health. In this study, the spatial and temporal pattern of vertical dust flux (VDF) was used to identify dust sources as well as areas with high potential for dust generation. To si...

The analysis of a severe convective storm occurred in northwestern Italy during late summer 2012 is presented here. The event was characterized by heavy precipitation, hail and intense wind gusts, causing injuries and damages to trees, buildings and infrastructures. The description of the case study draws upon a wide palette of observational data....

In this study, mesoscale environments associated with 57 significant tornadoes occurring over Italy in the period 2000–2018 are analyzed. The role of the vertical Wind Shear in the lower and middle troposphere, in terms of low-level shear (LLS) and deep-level shear (DLS), and of the convective available potential energy (CAPE) as possible precursor...

The rapid technological development of the past few decades has allowed for an unprecedented wealth of data about ourselves and our planet. The cost reduction of space platforms, the microelectronic revolution and the nearly exponential increase in computer power have been generating novel opportunities to explore and understand the world around us...

Different configurations for the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model were evaluated to improve wind and temperature fields predictions in the Northern Sahara and the Mediterranean basin. Eight setups, associated with different combinations of the surface layer physical parameters, the land surface model, and the grid nudging parameters, we...

Meteorological extreme events have a major impact on water resources, economic development, and ecosystem health. In this study, maximum precipitation and maximum temperature indices were derived for Isfahan province, in central Iran, over the historical (1992–2017) and future (2020–2100) periods. Precipitation and maximum temperature data from the...

Atmospheric gravity waves generated downstream by orography in a stratified airflow are known as lee waves. In the present study, such mesoscale patterns have been detected, over water and in clear-sky conditions, using the Advanced Infra-Red WAter Vapour Estimator (AIRWAVE) total column water vapour (TCWV) dataset, which contains about 20 years of...

A strong mesoscale convective system affected northeastern Italy on August 8, 2008. Notable damage and two casualties resulted, mainly due to the strong wind gusts. The event is analysed using observations, including surface data from a meso‐network of meteorological stations, radar reflectivity and velocity data from a C‐band Doppler radar, polar...