Cooler weather forecast

If you have been mopping your brow and opting to stay indoors in the past few days because it was too warm, good news is on the way today with the Meteorological Office predicting temperatures about 10 degrees lower than yesterday.

Chief Met. Officer Saviour Porter said that a northwesterly wind would bring with it a cooler breeze and temperatures for the coming days are expected to be in the upper-20s to lower-30s.

The forecast will come as an immense relief to those who have been attempting to get in a day's work in temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius.

Though many believe the weather has become increasingly unstable in the past few years, Mr Porter said it was not unusual for temperatures to fluctuate.

"The fact that temperatures were slightly cooler a few days ago means that people feel the heat much more. Another reason is that the weather has been very dry in the past few days," Mr Porter explained.

Giving a few statistics on the weather report for July, Mr Porter said the mean temperature for last month was 27.1 degrees Celsius, 1.2 degrees higher than the mean (for the years between 1960 and 1990).

The highest temperature reached was on July 23 when temperatures soared to 38.2 degrees Celsius. The highest temperature ever experienced in July was reached on July 9, 1988, when it went up to 42.7 degrees Celsius.

The all-time highest temperature was recorded on August 9, 1999, when it reached a sweltering 43.8 degrees.

The nights in July did not bring much relief either and temperatures during the night were 1.8 degrees Celsius warmer than average - the average being 21 degrees.

The lowest temperature reached during the night in July was 20.3 degrees Celsius on July 28 and 31.

Fog was observed on July 7 although throughout the month, humidity was four per cent lower than average, and the island had 11 hours of sunshine per day - more or less the average for this time of year.