How could a tornado impact a superyacht?

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A freak storm off the coast of Sicily resulted in a “tornado” that the island’s civil protection agency said was believed to sink a luxury yacht on Monday, killing one man and leaving six missing.

While 15 of the 22 passengers onboard the 180ft Bayesian superyacht were rescued, the search continues for British technology tycoon Mike Lynch; his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch; Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife Judy Bloomer; lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo.

Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was among those rescued, according to local media. Reuters reported that she owned the boat. The Associated Press said that eight of those rescued had been hospitalized, while others were relocated to a hotel.

The deceased person was identified as Recaldo Thomas by the Palermo Port Authority after his body was found by divers. The vessel’s chef, whose name was initially also reported as Ricardo Thomas, was originally from Antigua and Barbuda.

The Bayesian, boasted “one of the tallest aluminium masts in the world“, according to Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi, and has been sailed a handful of times around Sicily recently. The boat was sailing under a British flag, according to ship-tracking site Marine Traffic.

Salvo Cocina, of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said that the boat had been “in the wrong place at the wrong time” during the twister.

On Monday morning, there had been strong winds in the region. "The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude," a coast guard, from Palermo, also told Reuters on Tuesday.

Social media users posted video of waterspouts off the coast of Italy on the same day the Bayesian sank, and in the days before the tragic incident. Video posted online on Monday also showed the superyacht being engulfed in storm conditions.

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which is almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms,” climatologist Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian meteorological society, said.

“So we can’t say that this is all due to climate change, but we can say that it has an amplifying effect,” he added.

Mercalli said that a waterspout or a downburst, a more frequent phenomenon that doesn’t involve the rotation of the air, could have been the cause of the sunken yacht.

A waterspout is a column of air and water mist, and there are two types - tornadic and fair weather. Tornadic waterspounds have the ability to form over water, or start on land and then move over water. They have the same qualities as a land tornado -- also taking a ropelike structure -- and can be just as destructive.

Waterspouts are often associated with severe thunderstorms and accompanied by high winds and seas. All thunderstorms have the potential to produce tornadoes.

Dr. Pieter Groenemeijer, director of the European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL), told the Royal Meteorological Society last December that Europe’s greatest tornado density is in Italy, where 48 tornadoes are reported annually.

The average number of reported waterspouts in the Mediterranean region totals in the hundreds over the same period of time, according to the ESSL.

The best way to avoid waterspouts is to move at a 90-degree angle to its movement, according to the National Weather Service.

Warmer ocean temperatures are leading to changes in extreme weather, including increasing the intensity and frequency of storms.

The Atlantic hurricane season saw its earliest Category 5 hurricane on record in June, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said atmospheric and oceanic conditions had set the stage for an extremely active hurricane season.

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