A hurricane-like cyclone with an `eye', eyewall convection and strong
winds affected central Mediterranean basin on 7-8 November 2014. The
maximum observed sustained wind speed was 22 m/s (tropical storm
strength) at Lampedusa. Significant damages were reported from this
island and the coastal regions of eastern Sicily. Thus, it is essential
to study medicanes and calibrate the numerical weather prediction models
in order to simulate them adequately. Operational ECMWF analyses are
used together with the non-hydrostatic Weather Research and Forecasting
numerical model with the Advanced Research dynamic solver (WRF-ARW ver
3.7.1). The aims of this study are to simulate the system and
investigate the sensitivity of the model on the microphysical scheme,
the number of vertical levels and the global input dataset. The main
characteristics of the medicane are represented in good agreement with
observations and analyses, but, no single setup is able to provide the
best reproduction of all its features