Hot and sunny weather is being forecast by the Meteorological Office for Sunday – the Feast of Santa Marija.

It said that the maximum air temperature is expected to be lower than the temperatures recorded at the beginning of the week, but is forecast to reach 34°C, still be above average for the month of August.

August days are generally associated with l-gherejjex ta’ Santa Marija. These are huge convective clouds, known as Cumulus congestus, which form when a mixture of ideal meteorological conditions, including sufficient air moisture, light winds, and cold pools, are present.

The Met Office explained that however, due to the persistent presence of a dry airmass over the Mediterranean and the hot weather, the ideal conditions are not present for gherejjex to be able to develop over the coming days.

July’s weather round-up

There were more than 360 hours of sunshine recorded in July, the Met Office said today, with temperatures ranging between 21.5°C and 38°C which were higher than the norm, July’s maximum wind gust was of 37 knots.

A maximum air temperature of 38°C was reached on the last day of July bringing the hotter-than-average and completely dry summer month to a close.

The Met Office said that air temperature on 20 days in July, in fact, surpassed the climate norm of 31.6°C, with the mean maximum temperature for the month standing at 33°C.

Averaging at 27.1°C, on the other hand, the sea surface temperature was 2.4°C higher than the norm.

Northwesterly winds brought some respite, with the 18th of July being the month’s windiest day, with the Meteorological Office recording a maximum gust of 37 knots blowing from a northwest by west direction and a pleasant maximum air temperature of 28.2°C.

A week later, the month’s lowest temperature was recorded at 21.5°C during a weekend characterised by light to moderate northwesterly winds.

July days were brightened by 364.7 hours of sunshine, which total was only slightly above the sunshine quota for the month of 364.1 hours. The islands basked in 13 hours of sunshine on 3rd July, which was the month’s sunniest day, the Met Office said.

The mean cloud cover for the month stood at 0.5 oktas, which is lower than the expected 0.9 oktas.

Photo by Alain Salvary

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