The Mediterranean is expected to be one of the most prominent and vulnerable climate change “hotspots” of the twenty-first century, and the physical mechanisms underlying this finding are still not clear. Furthermore, complex interactions and feedbacks involving ocean–atmosphere–land–biogeochemical processes play a prominent role in modulating the climate and environment of the Mediterranean region on a range of spatial and temporal scales. Therefore, it is critical to provide robust climate change information for use in vulnerability–impact–adaptation assessment studies considering the Mediterranean as a fully coupled environmental system. The Mediterranean Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (Med-CORDEX) initiative aims at coordinating the Mediterranean climate modeling community toward the development of fully coupled regional climate simulations, improving all relevant components of the system from atmosphere and ocean dynamics to land surface, hydrology, and biogeochemical processes. The primary goals of Med-CORDEX are to improve understanding of past climate variability and trends and to provide more accurate and reliable future projections, assessing in a quantitative and robust way the added value of using high-resolution and coupled regional climate models. The coordination activities and the scientific outcomes of Med-CORDEX can produce an important framework to foster the development of regional Earth system models in several key regions worldwide.

A large number of intense cyclones occur every year in the Mediterranean basin, one of the climate change hotspots. Producing a broad range of severe socio-economic and environmental impacts in such a densely populated region, Mediterranean cyclones call for coordinated and interdisciplinary research efforts. This article aims at supporting these efforts by reviewing the status of knowledge in the broad field of Mediterranean cyclones. First, we focus on the climatology of Mediterranean cyclone tracks, their relationship to large-scale atmospheric circulation and their future trends. Second, we discuss the dynamics and atmospheric processes that govern the genesis and development of Mediterranean cyclones. Then, we present the different subtypes of Mediterranean cyclones, devoting special attention to medicanes, i.e. cyclones with tropical characteristics and subjects of numerous recent studies. In a subsequent section, we review the state of the art in forecasting cyclones and relevant high-impact weather, and we discuss in detail the challenges and recent efforts to increase their forecast skill. Finally, we discuss the main impacts produced by cyclones, namely heavy precipitation, windstorms, dust transport, storm surges and sea wave extremes. In the last section of this review article, we thoroughly outline the future directions of research that would advance the broader field of Mediterranean cyclones.

We review the recent progress in dynamical and statistical downscaling approaches for west African precipitation and perform a regional climate model (RCM) intercomparison using the novel multi‐model RCM data set from the Ensembles‐based Predictions of Climate Changes and Their Impacts (ENSEMBLES) and African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) projects. Present RCMs have distinct systematic errors in terms of west African precipitation varying in amplitude and pattern across models. This is also reflected in a relatively large spread in projected future precipitation trends. Altogether, the ENSEMBLES RCMs indicate a prevailing drying tendency in sub‐Saharan Africa. Statistical post‐processing of simulated precipitation is a promising tool to reduce systematic model errors before application in impact studies. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society

Mediterranean hurricanes (Medicanes) are intense cyclones that acquire tropical characteristics, associated with extreme winds and rainfall, thus posing a serious natural hazard to populated areas along Mediterranean coasts. Understanding how Medicanes will change with global warming remains, however, a challenge, because coarse resolution and/or the lack of atmosphere‐ocean coupling limit the reliability of numerical simulations. Here we investigate the Medicanes' response to global warming using a recently developed 25‐km global coupled climate model, which features a realistic representation of Medicanes in present climate conditions. It is found that despite a decrease in frequency, Medicanes potentially become more hazardous in the late century, lasting longer and producing stronger winds and rainfall. These changes are associated with a more robust hurricane‐like structure and are mainly confined to autumn. Thus, continued anthropogenic warming will increase the risks associated with Medicanes even in an intermediate scenario (Representative Concentration Pathway, RCP4.5), with potential natural and socioeconomic consequences.