Rare Hurricane-Like ‘Medicane’ Storm Hits Europe

A Met office satellite image shows the unusual medicane hurricane-like storm system as it hits the Greek coast on Sept. 29, 2018. Met Office

Europe is usually safe from hurricanes, far from the tropical waters that whip them up before firing the cyclonic storms into the U.S. East Coast at this time of year.

But a rare weather system, a so-called medicane—a combination of the words Mediterranean and hurricane—formed over the Mediterranean last week, killing five people in flash floods in Tunisia, before tearing into the Greek islands.