Although many may have been taken aback by the unexpected heavy rain as they opened their eyes yesterday morning - and would have liked to curl back into bed - it was certainly not the wettest day for April, the Meteorological Office said.

It measured 18.6 mm at Luqa until noon yesterday, while the average for Malta was 17.1 mm.

The wettest day for the month dates back to April 4, 1994, which saw 92.4 mm of rain, duty forecaster John Darmanin said.

It was normal that it rained at this time of the year, Mr Darmanin explained. "It is still spring and cold air is still able to plunge into the Mediterranean, creating fronts that bring rainy days to the central Med."

Given the water that had collected, the police yesterday morning advised the public to bypass roads leading to Msida and Birkirkara to avoid unnecessary accidents.

Only the odd small crash was reported, they said, while the assistance of the Civil Protection Department was required to pull a few cars that got stuck in the water in the Birkirkara and Msida areas.

"We just went to pull them out," said CPD director Peter Cordina, adding that there were no serious accidents.