This Friday morning, 9 October 2026, two waterspouts formed off Marsala on the west coast of Sicily. Footage on social media shows the two funnels over the sea at the same time. The vortices then apparently reached the coast and swept across the south of Marsala and neighbouring Petrosino as tornadoes. The Sicilian Civil Protection Agency estimates that they made landfall at around 10 am. Buildings were damaged, roofs were torn off, trees and electricity pylons were uprooted, and vehicles were overturned. Road and rail links were temporarily disrupted.
Serious damage and several people injured
A school, residential buildings, commercial premises and farm buildings were damaged, some of them severely. Several vehicles were thrown off the road; two people suffered serious injuries as a result. The mayor of Marsala announced that she would apply for a state of emergency to be declared.
It is not yet clear exactly how many separate tornadoes actually made landfall. Two funnels were visible over the sea at the same time. In its initial statement, the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency referred to a particularly powerful vortex, whilst other local authorities and media outlets reported two tornadoes. No official classification of their strength has yet been issued.
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Tornadoes just outside the harbour area
The footage from the sea off Marsala looks alarming. The two waterspouts formed after consistent reports just outside the harbour area. From there, they made their way towards the southern districts and on to Petrosino.
There have been no reports so far of damage to yachts, jetties, piers or other harbour facilities. Neither the fire service nor the regional civil defence authorities mention any destroyed pleasure boats or harbour infrastructure in their initial damage assessments.
Furthermore, the fact that a waterspout is forming off the harbour does not necessarily mean that it will cross the harbour basin. The severe damage reported so far is concentrated in a strip south of the town centre and along the road between Marsala and Petrosino.
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Why the waterspouts were able to form
A very unstable air mass was hovering over Sicily. Cold air in the upper layers met warm, moist air over the still comparatively warm Mediterranean Sea. This led to the formation of powerful thunderclouds. The sea provided additional moisture and heat for convection.
For the How a tornado forms However, warm water alone is not enough. Suitable wind conditions, convergence near the ground and – depending on the type of tornado – changes in wind direction and speed with altitude are also required. Satellite images can show the powerful thunderstorm cell, but cannot definitively show the small-scale tornado itself. This is what makes this weather phenomenon so unpredictable.
A yellow severe weather warning was in place for the whole of Sicily today, Friday. Further thunderstorms, heavy rain and strong gusts of wind were expected. On Saturday, too, the Unstable weather conditions remain; increasing winds and heavy seas were forecast in the Strait of Sicily.
The Mediterranean is in turmoil
The incident in Marsala is one of a series of severe weather events in the Mediterranean. Whilst this is not a single, coherent weather system, these events do demonstrate how vulnerable the area is, particularly in autumn, when the first cold air outbreaks encounter a sea that is still very warm.
This year, the effect will be even more pronounced: the Mediterranean is nunusually warm following the long heatwaves of the summer of 2026. In the western and central Mediterranean, there were in some cases Record temperatures measured at the sea surface; on 6 October, the average surface temperature of the entire Mediterranean was still 1.2 degrees Celsius above the usual level. Air and sea temperatures are linked and can reinforce each other. A warm sea also provides more moisture and energy for severe weather. However, it is not possible to deduce from this alone whether, or to what extent, it influenced the event described here.
It was only in mid-September that computer models and media reports had warned of the possible formation of a Medicanes warned. The low-pressure system was expected to form over the central Mediterranean and move towards Greece and Crete. The feared development into a tropical-like cyclone did not ultimately materialise. Instead, a weaker Mediterranean low-pressure system reached Greece and Crete, bringing rain and localised thunderstorms.
Just around two weeks later, Crete was indeed hit by severe storms – though caused by a different weather system. From 30 September to 4 October, the island was placed on the highest alert level, ‘Red Code’. The Greek Meteorological Service issued warnings of heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and north-easterly winds of eight to nine on the Beaufort scale over the Aegean Sea.
In Crete The rainfall led to flooding, landslides and power cuts. Roads and farmland were severely damaged, with some cars being swept out to sea. On the Lassithi Plateau, large areas were covered in water and mud.
There is no direct meteorological link between the medicane forecast in September, the floods in Crete and the waterspouts off Marsala. What these events do have in common, however, is their seasonal context: in autumn, the warm Mediterranean can release a great deal of moisture into the atmosphere, whilst cold air at high altitudes causes significant instability.
First weather bomb as early as January
Sicily has already been hit by a severe storm once this year: In January, the storm hit “Harry” Sicily and Malta. The storm brought wind speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour and exceptionally high waves. A single wave of more than 16 metres was recorded between the southern tip of Sicily and Malta. At that time, ports in particular suffered severe damage: pontoons broke, boats sank or were washed ashore.
From a meteorological point of view, the two events differ significantly. ‘Harry’ was a large-scale Mediterranean cyclone characterised by strong winds, prolonged rough seas and extreme rainfall. The tornadoes in Marsala, by contrast, formed within a single, spatially confined thunderstorm cell.
However, both cases show that Mediterranean ports are not automatically safe havens in all weather conditions. Whilst large-scale storm systems can drive dangerous swells into harbour basins, thunderstorms pose a risk primarily due to downbursts, lightning strikes, hail and sudden waterspouts.