Cyclone Qendresa

Meteorological history

A shortwave trough near the British Isles started to expand southwards to North Africa since 3 November, which caused Lake Maggiore to overflow. Although the Institute of Meteorology of the Free University of Berlin had assigned the name Qendresa to an expected low-pressure area developed within the trough on 4 November, it actually gave the name to two different systems on 5 November, resulting in Qendresa I to the south and Qendresa II to the north. On 6 November, the southern tip of Qendresa I started to develop a low-level circulation centre (LLCC) near Kerkennah Islands, and it is referred to simply as Qendresa later by most of documents and reports. The trough also developed two upper-level circulation centres (ULCCs) on the same day— the one near the southeastern coast of France quickly dissipated, yet the one in Algeria moved to Tunisia and then entered the Strait of Sicily on the next day, becoming a cut-off low from the trough.

When Qendresa’s LLCC was moving north-northeastwards and combining with the ULCC early on 7 November, the system occluded quickly and intensified dramatically. Thanks to sea surface temperature over 23 ºC and the strong cold air at middle and upper levels, Qendresa formed an eye-like feature surrounded by deep convection near Linosa around noon. Shortly before 17:00 CET (16:00 UTC), Qendresa directly hit Malta when it had lost its fronts with a more well-defined eye. MOLOCH, an Italian model, estimated that the low-level temperature of Qendresa’s eye was about 6 ºC warmer than the surrounding area with the no longer cold middle and upper levels at that time, suggesting a warm-core system. At the storm's peak intensity, Qendresa had a minimum low pressure of 978 hPa (28.88 inHg), maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 110.9 km/h (68.9 mph; 59.9 kn), and maximum gusts up to 153.7 km/h (95.5 mph; 83.0 kn). Interacting with Sicily, the cyclone turned northeastwards and started to make an anticlockwise loop east of the Italian island. On 8 November, Qendresa tracked along the coast of Catania and crossed Syracuse in the morning. It was significantly eroded because of the terrain of Sicily and increasing vertical wind shear, resulting a partially exposed and weakening system later. On November 9, Qendresa lost its cold front, but weakened into a remnant low, near the island of Crete. On November 10, the system continued to decay, while moving over the island of Crete. On November 11, Qendresa dissipated over Crete.

Impact

Malta experienced a direct hit similar to a typical tropical cyclone from Qendresa. In St. Paul's Bay, a coastal town in northern Malta, the weather station of Buġibba recored ten-minute sustained winds at 110.9 km/h (68.9 mph) and the gust at 153.7 km/h (95.5 mph) at 16:58 CET (15:58 UTC), the strongest recorded overland from a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone in history; about 15 minutes later, the central pressure at 978.6 hPa (28.90 inHg) was recorded inside the eye with totally calm conditions, the lowest of all Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones since reliable records. Weather stations across other areas also recorded significant gusts from Qendresa. At Malta International Airport, it recorded the gust at 119 km/h (73.9 mph). Lampedusa, the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands, recorded the gust at 135 km/h (83.9 mph).

Qendresa caused chaos in Malta. Airport operations were suspended, and harbours were also closed. With lots of cars stalled in flooded streets throughout low-lying areas, the cyclone caused a traffic nightmare over the island. Power outages happened in several towns as electricity poles were brought down by strong winds; besides, many trees were uprooted. Qendresa brought similar damages to the eastern part of Sicily, including eroded coasts, blew off roofs and overturned boats.