"14th Plinius Conference and MEDEX Final Conference" is the title of a special issue of the EGU open-access journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS), aiming to collect papers based on selected oral and poster contributions to the conference with the same title, held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, from 13 to 15 November 2012. This conference was the continuation of the series of EGU Plinius Topical Conferences, but the edition of 2012 added the MEDEX Final Conference as a particular objective. The EGU Plinius Conferences on Mediterranean Storms were founded in 1999, as an initiative of Prof. Franco Siccardi (CIMA, Italy), with the support of the EGU Natural Hazards Division, in those times directed by Maria Carmen Llasat (UB, Spain). The Plinius Conferences have been interdisciplinary meetings in which the exchange of new ideas and results about the Mediterranean storms and their hydrological, geological, marine or social consequences takes place. Over the years the Plinius Conferences have been associated with the project MEDEX. MEDEX has been an international project on cyclones that produce high-impact weather in the Mediterranean, endorsed by WMO-WWRP in its first phase and framed into the WMO-WWRP-THORPEX during its second phase. The objectives and topics of the Plinius Conferences and of MEDEX largely overlap. Most MEDEX results have been presented at the Plinius Conferences, and various MEDEX meetings have been held during them. MEDEX finished in 2010; 2012 was a good moment to join a Final Conference on MEDEX with the corresponding Plinius Conference. The topics included in that conference were the following:

• social impacts of Mediterranean storms;
• Mediterranean storm monitoring;
• diagnosis and prediction of Mediterranean storms;
• hydrometeorology and hydrology of Mediterranean storms;
• geological and marine consequences of Mediterranean storms;
• specific session devoted to MEDEX.

The joint 14th Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms and MEDEX Final Conference was co-organised by the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and had the support of these institutions, the EGU Natural Hazards Division and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Special support was granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CGL2011-15797-E grant).