Higher temperatures are expected next week following on from the showers, which were locally thundery, gusty and heavy at times across the Maltese Islands over the past few days, the Met Office said.

It explained that such weather is expected at this time of year, with the presence of the gharajjex ta’ Santa Marija, which are synonymous with the month of August, signalling the upcoming seasonal change.

The Meteorological Office is forecasting generally fine weather from Saturday through to Thursday.

It said that the Maltese Islands are set to experience temperatures that are higher than the August climate norm of 32°C in the coming days, with the temperature expected to peak at 36°C on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, July was another hotter-than-average summer month, with the mean air temperature exceeding the climate norm of 26.9°C by 1.7°C. July’s maximum temperature peaked at 38.8°C on the second day, while the lowest temperature was recorded on the twelfth day at 21.3°C.

The sea surface is hotting up, with 27.9°C as the mean sea surface temperature for July which was 2.7°C warmer than the climate norm for the month, going on to surpass the expected mean temperature for August by 1.2°C as well.

378.5 hours of sunshine brightened the second month of the meteorological summer, with July 16 clocking a maximum of 13.4 sunshine hours. At 0.6 oktas, the mean cloud cover for July was slightly lower than the expected 0.8 oktas.

0.2mm of rain were measured by the Meteorological Office in Hal Luqa, making July slightly wetter than the norm.

The month was calmer than the norm, maintaining an average wind speed of 5.9 knots rather than the expected 6.9 knots. The maximum gust for the month was recorded on July 8 at 34 knots, blowing from the Northwest by West.

Photo by Alain Salvary

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