November 2, 1994, severe storms in the southeastern Mediterranean

The available data archive over the Middle East is complemented with mesoscale fields from simulations for 1-2 November 1994 event of hazardous rains in the southeastern Mediterranean with the aim of exploring the mechanisms of this extraordinary phenomena. The associated severe weather was not predicted at all by the present operational models. A global/limited area modeling system is used for numerical simulation of the process. The system consists of the Florida State University (FSU) Global Spectral Model (FSUGSM) and the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU/NCAR) MM5 model. The accuracy of the numerical simulation is found very sensitive to the moist processes in the model. The development was a consequence of intensive non-adiabatic processes caused by northward propagation of large quantities of warm and moist tropical air. Local terrain of northeastern Africa also played a significant role in the development of a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) in the Mediterranean region on November 2, 1994. Over Israel, the system had a character of relatively large-scale trough with a narrow frontal system accompanied by rapidly developing small cyclonic vortices in the eastern Mediterranean. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.