The deadly waterspouts thought to have caused Sicily boat tragedy

Global warming may have contributed to the freak storm that sank a luxury British-flagged yacht off the coast of Sicily on Monday, scientists have said.

One man died and six people were missing, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, after the “Bayesian”, a 56-metre-long (184-ft) sailboat, was suddenly hit by ferocious weather.

Lynch, who was acquitted in June in a big US fraud trial, was among the six people who remain unaccounted for after their chartered sailboat sank off Porticello, when a tornado over the water known as a waterspout struck the area overnight, said Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency.

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Italian climatologist Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian meteorological society, said the episode could have been a waterspout, essentially a tornado over water, or else a downburst, a more frequent phenomenon that doesn’t involve the rotation of the air.

“We don’t know which it was because it all happened in the dark in the early hours of the morning, so we have no photographs,” he said.

Fisherman Francesco Cefalu’ said he had seen a flare from shore at around 4:30 a.m. and immediately set out to the site but by the time he got there, the Bayesian had already sunk, with only cushions, wood and other items from the superyacht floating in the water. “

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But for the rest, we didn’t find anyone,” he said from the port hours later. He said that he immediately alerted the coast guard and stayed on site for three hours, but didn’t find any survivors. “I think they are inside, all the missing people.”

He said he had been up so early to check the weather to see if he could go fishing, and surmised that a sudden waterspout had struck the yacht.

In Italy waterspouts can involve winds of up to 200 kilometres (124 miles) per hour, while downbursts can produce gusts of around 150 km per hour.

Statistics show that downbursts are becoming more frequent around the country, which Mercalli said may be connected to global warming.

Storms and heavy rainfall have swept down Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat.

“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,” Mercalli said.

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

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A similar freak storm killed four people, when their tourist boat sank on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy in May last year.

The country’s varied geology makes it prone to floods and landslides, while the fact it is flanked by rapidly warming seas means it is vulnerable to increasingly powerful storms.

“Climate-driven catastrophes in Italy will become more frequent and more intense,” Mercalli said.

The Bayesian was known for its single 75-meter (246-feet) mast, one of the world’s tallest made of aluminum and which was lit up at night, just hours before it sank. Online charter sites list it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week.