Genoa low

A Genoa low (also known as Genoa Cyclogenesis, Ligurian Depression, or V(5)-track cyclone) is a cyclone that forms or intensifies from a pre-existing cyclone to the south of the Alps over the Gulf of Genoa, Ligurian Sea, Po Valley and northern Adriatic.

The northwestern Mediterranean and the Gulf of Genoa in particular, are not only a transition area for passing cyclones, but are frequently areas of cyclogenesis. Low pressure areas move into or are formed as a result of North Atlantic air entering the Mediterranean Sea between the Alps and the Massif Central, via the Rhone Valley, or via the Carcassonne gap between the Pyrenees and Massif Central. This cold and moist air enters the Mediterranean basin, and is deflected by the high mountains of northwest Corsica, which divert the air mass to the northeast, triggering cool and wet Libeccio winds in response into to the Ligurian Sea, which in turn hit the western Apennines located in the immediate vicinity of the sea.

Several factors that have special relevance in the development of depressions south of the Alps are:

A complex interaction is established between the orography of Liguria and the contrast between the cold and humid air mass and the warmer water of the Ligurian Sea, the process ends with the formation of a low pressure area over the Ligurian Sea, just near the city of Genoa. Genoa low cyclogenesis can occur at any time of year, though usually situated further south during the summer. Cyclogenesis is shifted to the east depending on the amount of cold air entering the Po Valley, and generally shifts to the Gulf of Venice when little enters the valley.

The depressions bear rain, often intense, on the Ligurian coast and hills of Tuscany, due to orographic lift which affects the southern side of the Apennines. The area of low pressure is slow moving, and may follow a trajectory from west to east, then going on to affect the regions of the Adriatic, or move from the north-west to south-east down along the Tyrrhenian Sea: in this last case, the structure will reach the same cyclonic area of formation of Tyrrhenian depressions, although not related to the latter.

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