UPDATE: While the incoming Medicane will indeed be the strongest ever recorded in the Mediterranean, new weather updates are confirming that it should not be affecting the Maltese Islands. Since warnings of strong winds and alerts by the Malta Police Force are still in effect, we would still advise caution over the coming days.

‘Medicane’ might not be a term many people are familiar with, but it’s about to be on everyone’s mouth in the coming hours. International weather forecasting pages are closely following a Mediterranean cyclone which is currently forming off the northern coast of Africa, and it might just hit the Maltese Islands this weekend.

Malta’s meteorological office currently has a ‘very strong’ wind warning valid until 11pm tonight, with other authorities also warning islanders on the coming hours’ worsening conditions. The Malta Police Force advised motorists and pedestrians to avoid the area known as il-Fossa in Valletta, while the Emergency Response Rescue Corps maintained their warning for people to stay away from a number of bays around the archipelago.

Over the past 24 hours, Severe Weather Europe has been reporting that the Medicane, which has been named Zorbas, will form in the Ionian Sea tomorrow. “Medicane Zorbas is projected to bring hurricane force winds and dangerous flooding to parts of southern Greece this weekend,” Forbes reported earlier today. “Though such storms only happen once or twice per year, they can present a significant hazard to society.”

While not technically a hurricane, a Medicane has a lot in common with tropical storms, with strong winds spinning around a core and torrential rainfall. In 2014, for example, Medicane Qendresa had hit Malta with sustained winds of up to 70 miles per hour and gusts of up to 95mph. Just last year, a Halloween storm formation had hit the islands and caused chaos in areas like the Grand Harbour.

“Nevertheless, the waters of the Mediterranean aren’t extensive or warm enough to sustain the strength needed to call these storms legitimate hurricanes,” Columbia’s Yochanan Kushnir explained.

Medicanes are most likely to develop in two hot spots, according to a long-term climatology published in 2014 in Climate Dynamics. The most favored area for development is in the western Mediterranean, especially between Spain and the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. The other hot spot is the Ionian Sea… especially just southeast of Malta.

This morning, the Malta Weather Facebook page confirmed the formation of the Mediterranean hurricane, saying all weather models are predicting the formation of Medicane Zorbas. “It could potentially become the strongest ever Medicane in the Mediterranean,” the weather page said of the forming cyclone.

Stay safe out there, follow all warnings issued by the Met Office, and help us spread the word.

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).