November 2, 1994, severe storms in the southeastern Mediterranean

The available data archive over the Middle East is complemented with mesosc ale 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 pred icted at all by the present operational models. A global/limited area model ing system is used for numerical simulation of the process. The system cons ists of the Florida State University (FSU) Global Spectral Model (FSUGSM) a nd the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Resear ch (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 c onsequence of intensive non-adiabatic processes caused by northward propaga tion of large quantities of warm and moist tropical air. Local terrain of n ortheastern Africa also played a significant role in the development of a M esoscale Convective System (MCS) in the Mediterranean region on November 2, 1994. Over Israel, the system had a character of relatively large-scale tr ough with a narrow frontal system accompanied by rapidly developing small c yclonic vortices in the eastern Mediterranean. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.