Violent storms and freak tornadoes have lashed Italy in recent days – claiming at least one life and leaving a wake of destruction along the country’s southern coast.
A waterspout – a twister over the sea – is believed to have hit the British-flagged Bayesian superyacht yesterday as it was anchored off Sicily.
The vessel’s mast broke, sinking the £30million boat and sparking a search mission for six passengers who were on board, including its British owner Mike Lynch. The disaster also resulted in the death of a crewmember.
On the same day as the tragedy, terrifying videos of huge waterspouts swirling over the Mediterranean were shared by locals and holidaymakers across southern Italy.
Tourists at beachside resorts have faced severe weather in recent days, with dramatic footage showing beaches and town centres ravaged by gale force winds.
A towering waterspout was caught on camera off the coast of Salento, southern Italy
High winds, which locals said were the result of a tornado, unleashed chaos on a beach in Salerno
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept the country after weeks of scorching heat lifted the temperature of the Med to record levels, raising the risk of extreme weather conditions, experts have said.
Meteorologist Paolo Sottocorona, who is also a sailing instructor, explained the dangers of being at sea in the current conditions.
‘The warm sea seems pleasant, but heat from a physical point of view is energy,’ he said. ‘The Mediterranean at this moment is a gasoline tank. If you put a match in it, that is, a current of cold air like those of these days, it explodes.’
‘The warmer the sea, the stronger the tornadoes,’ he went on. ‘The most destructive tornadoes used to hit once every hundred years.
‘Now we see one or more per year. Even meteorological models have a hard time predicting such intense events.’
Sicily saw a clutch of intense weather on Sunday night into Monday morning, with the island placed under weather warnings for wind and thunderstorms.
High winds battered coastal areas, including Porticello, where Bayesian was anchored.
‘I had never seen anything like it. A tornado that lasted about ten minutes, an apocalyptic scenario,’ said Giuseppe D’Agostino, the mayor of Santa Flavia, a town near the city of Palermo.
In the Gulf of Brucoli in southern Sicily, locals shared pictures of a sailboat which had been wrecked on the rocks after being blown in by strong winds
Video emerged yesterday of umbrellas and chairs being strewn across a coastal resort by what witnesses described as a tornado
‘The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which is almost three degrees more than normal,’ ,’ said meteorologist Luca Mercalli.
‘This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms.’
He added that while it can’t be said ‘that this is all due to global warming’, it clearly still has an ‘amplifying effect.’
British tech magnate Mike Lynch was on board his yacht, the Bayesian, when it was hit by a tornado on Monday
This picture shows the luxury superyacht called The Bayesian (left) off Porticello, Palermo, the night before it was hit by the storm
CCTV footage from around 4am yesterday shows a torrent of wind and rain suddenly slamming into the town.
The high winds throw umbrellas, plant pots, tables and chairs flying within seconds of hitting, with the local restaurant who shared the footage saying: ‘In a moment the hurricane took everything away!’
The owners of Baia Santa Nicolicchia said they were able to open later in the morning once the storm had passed, but added: ‘We have no memory of anything like this in our area.’
In the Gulf of Brucoli in southern Sicily, locals shared pictures of a sailboat which had been wrecked on the rocks after being blown in by strong winds.
North of Sicily, in Italy’s Campania region, video emerged yesterday of umbrellas and chairs being strewn across a coastal resort by what witnesses described as a tornado.
Footage shows tourists taking shelter as stormy winds begin to strengthen at a beach in Santa Marina, in the province of Salerno.
Suddenly, a huge gust propels umbrellas and deckchairs towards where they are standing, with the person filming running for cover.
While locals reported severe damage to the building and its surroundings, miraculously, no one was hurt in the incident.
Footage from the area – the Gulf of Policastro – shared around the same time shows a waterspout threatening a motorboat below.
A driver in the area also shared footage, taken from her car, of the extreme weather phenomenon.
Footage from the Gulf of Policastro shows a waterspout threatening a motorboat below
Tornadoes have been reported along the Adriatic coast, with dramatic video showing towering vortexes of water over the sea near Santa Cesarea Terme and Gagliano del Capo.
In the Apulia region – the heel of the Italian ‘boot’ – fishermen who were at sea were reportedly called back due to the phenomenon.
A powerful waterspout was filmed off the coast of Salento, at the far south of the region.
There have been reports of people being evacuated from their homes in coastal regions, while many have been warned to get off beaches as storms roll in.
Italy’s Civil Protection has issued a yellow alert for 11 areas, including Campainia, Puglia, Calabria and part of Sicily, warning that they will see more cloudbursts and thunderstorms.
Areas across the Italian Peninsula have already seen costly damage to property and trees downed in the storms.
Severe flooding has also been seen in recent days across northern and central Italy.
What are waterspouts and how do they form?
By Jonathan Chadwick
Waterspouts are swirling columns of air and water mist that are formed over water, or move from land to water.
Strong waterspouts are known to pose a serious danger to ships and aircraft, because of the energy of the whirling 60mph winds within them – similar to a tornado.
They are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning – making them an extra risk for people on boats.
They’re most common off the coast of Florida and the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico, parts of the Mediterranean including offshore Greece, as well as off the east coast of Australia.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines a waterspout as a ‘funnel which contains an intense vortex, sometimes destructive, of small horizontal extent and which occurs over a body of water’.
Waterspouts come in two types – tornadic and fair weather.
Waterspouts are swirling columns of air and water mist that are formed over water, or move from land to water. Pictured: Two waterspouts are seen over the sea off Fregenae
Tornadic waterspouts generally begin as true tornadoes over land in association with a thunderstorm, and then move out over the water. They can be large and are capable of considerable destruction.
Fair weather waterspouts, on the other hand, form only over open water. They develop at the surface of the water and climb skyward in association with warm water temperatures and high humidity in the lowest several thousand feet of the atmosphere.
Waterspouts can form when winds blowing in two different directions run into each other.
‘Along the line where the two winds meet (called a ‘convergence line’ or ‘shear line’), there is a lot of rotating air near the surface,’ explains Dean Narramore, senior meteorologist at Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
‘The collision of the two winds makes air move upwards because it has nowhere else to go.
‘This rising air carries water vapour high into the sky where it creates rain showers, storms and cumulus clouds.’
‘As the air rises, it can tilt some of the horizontal spinning air near the surface into the vertical direction.
‘When this vertical spin concentrates at a particular point it starts sucking up water – and you have yourself a waterspout.’
Video shared by a driver shows a tornado in Italy
Waterspouts generally occur when the air is cold and moist, wind speeds are relatively light and water temperatures are warm – so scientists expect to see more as the climate changes.
According to NOAA, the best way to avoid a waterspout is to move at a 90-degree angle to its apparent movement – and never approach one.
A dark spot on the ocean, usually only visible from the air, is the first sign of a waterspout forming.
This leads to a dense swirling ring of sea spray, called a cascade, appearing around the dark spot, which grows to become a waterspout.
They are spectacular but short lived, usually lasting no more than five minutes – but occasionally up to ten minutes.
