Cold, but not that bad - Garibaldi Street closed
Italy gas crisis as the cold bites
A car's thermometer shows four degrees in Ta Xbiex at 7.34 this morning - Picture Annabelle Zammit - mynews@timesofmalta.com
It rained, hail fell over many areas and the wind was strong, but the weather last night was nothing out of the ordinary, despite the hype.
The MIA Met Office recorded a temperature of 6 degrees centigrade at Luqa overnight, and the mercury went slightly lower in some localities. But it was far from the record 1.4 degrees C reached on 29th January 1981.
Transport Malta this morning closed off Triq Garibaldi, Luqa due to safety concerns stemming from the weather. It said it had received a communication from the resources authority asking it to remove the trees lining the road following reports that they were posing a danger to traffic.
"In view of the circumstances and the prevalent wind a decision was taken to close the roads off immediately." As a result, traffic were reported in the Marsa area.
The Met Office said the Northwest or West Northwest wind will stay strong over the Maltese Islands for most of today. It will also remain rather cloudy with showers which may be with hail at times and possibly thundery later. Temperatures will hover around 10C during the day and 5C during the night up to Thursday.
Transport Malta regrets any inconvenience.
GAS EMERGENCY IN ITALY
Italian government officials have admitted that their country is facing a potential gas shortage, as the cold snap caused demand to soar, while imports dropped.
Officials said last night that the country had enough supplies till tomorrow, but rationing of supplies to big industrial concerns has already started.
Industry Minister Corrado Passera said there had been a drop in supplies from Russia and France, but Italy was raising imports from Algeria and Northern Europe via Switzerland.
Some 20 people have died in Italy as a result of the cold weather and schools remain closed in many regions and cities, including Rome. Snow was recorded in most of the peninsula.
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39 Comments
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Joan Nelson
Feb 7th, 19:23
We need better roads far more then parliament needed the super duper new parliament house to show off.
For what they put into the building we could have done most of Malta.
Marc Caruana
Feb 7th, 19:19
sur cassar bintek waslet tard u naqsula 20 punt. tfal ohrajn ma marx ghalijhom skola santa licija u tilfu l ezami. imma alla jbierk dal kuntrattur hadt ma jista ghalieh al xejn tirraporta l iskola ghax xi haga regolari din jew late jew l art. l aqwa li f xi elezjoni ngorru l kanditati fuq dat trasport.u miskin cikku l poplu.
Victor Pulis
Feb 7th, 17:48
Why doesn't anyone investigate why road works take so long? Besides the cospicua waterfront and Council of Europe Cospicua road from St; Thomas street to Cottonera avenue about 238 metres has been in a shambles for months.
Duncan Cassar
Feb 7th, 14:50
prosit hafna it tifla waslet tard iskola u naqsulha 20 points mil ezami issa jien al elloezjoni ha nasal 20 min tard wara li jaghlqu il bibien !!!!!!!!!!!!!! pajjiz ta 5 dinja toroq kollha hofor u idumu 3 snin bibna nibnu biex naghmlu triq tal misthija mur gigna nibnu il great wall of china !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jake Mizzi
Feb 7th, 15:33
Jekk vera naqqsulha 20 punt mill-ezami imissek tappella din id-decizjoni ingusta. Pero l-argument tieghek huwa invalidu u ma jaghmilx sens ghalhekk haddiehor ha jinjorak :)
Ġ. Agius
Feb 7th, 17:10
Ibghata tistudja ghall-perit halli ssolvielna il-problemi, Sur Cassar.
Edward Mallia
Feb 7th, 14:37
@ Paul Baratt
Would you like to sit down and ssketch out a scheme whereby we can "switch seamlessly" between the Delimara Extension piston engines using HFO or gasoil to natural gas, or indeedthe other way round?
The Italians are bringing on stream oil-fired powered stations which are not in usenormally, to try and make up for their gas deficit. There is no "seamless" conversion involved.
John Micallef
Feb 7th, 12:01
I was quite disappointed to see so few people going to work using bicycles this morning... :-P
B Attard
Feb 7th, 11:46
Mela grazzi lil TM vjagg minn Birzebbugia Tarxien u lura siegha u nofs u t-tfal tas-sekondarja spiccaw tilflu l-ewwel ezami. Grazzi mill-qalb.
Zagroma Savrene
Feb 7th, 12:01
Next time get out off your warm bed and take the kids to school with your car.
Simon Cassar
Feb 7th, 12:32
@ Mr. Savrene....i think u are missing the point!!! getting with my car wont solve the traffic jams!! it would ever increase them!!! TM had done a complete mess with the roads in the south, closing too many roads with TOO many works done by the SAME contractor...could they have easily divided the work into phases or distributed it to other contractors..it is pretty obvious that one contractor cannot finish ALL the roads at one go!
Frans Aguis
Feb 7th, 12:34
LOL I hope you are being sarcastic Zagroma...
B Attard
Feb 7th, 13:01
@ Zagroma Saverne For your information that's what I did otherwise my kids would have lost both exams.
Duncan Cassar
Feb 7th, 14:55
att zagroma savrene i woke up from bed at 6 to take my kid to school but i still arrived at 8.45 ok espert ta traffic !!!!!!!!!!
Maria Brincat
Feb 7th, 16:37
mhux ghal xi haga... imma kull min kellu din il-problema jmissu jappella u jipprotesta... jekk ma' jehdux it-temp ta' llum into consideration u jiskuzawhom, vera bla sens...
A. Borg
Feb 7th, 11:02
Robert Mifsud
Forsi tifimni bil-malti.
Ga kienet maghluqa fil-5 ta filghaxija tal-bierah. Ghaliex ma nfurmax lis-sewwieqa bis-sorpriza li hadu dalghodu?
Robert Mifsud
Feb 7th, 14:29
Jekk forsi rajt il hin tal post tista tikonkludi li ghaxar minuti wara ktibt jien u li dik ma kinietx indirizzata lilek.
Apparti min hekk hemm diversion signs tiga, ma ghandhomx ghalfejn jinfurmaw meta jalqu triq li qieghda taht kostruzzjoni.
Kurt Vella
Feb 7th, 10:55
Congrats to Transport Malta. Your foresight and planning is out of this world. This morning I left home in Marsaxlokk at 7.10 and passed the traffic lights at Marsa at 8.20. Well you're another Austin Gatt child!!!...we can't expect better.
Of course the trees in Garibaldi could be dangerous in strong winds...that is because the contractors engaged cut off all their roots...and once I am mentioning Garibaldi road, there are more idle machinery lieing idle than workers. With such a vital artery closed Transport Malta should see that contractor is working round the clock to finish the job asap.
J Goffin
Feb 7th, 11:20
Same here..... we could have been told yesterday of the intention and then at least given time to leave earlier to go to work....
Left Birzebbuga this morning at 7:45 got to the Traffic light at Cemetry Hill at 8:55.
Non Existant planning by Transport Malta
Mr Michael Debono
Feb 7th, 10:41
According to the French news-paper Le Figaro this Tuesday morning 7th February is to be the coldest day in over 50 French Departments and besides France snow is to cover Italy and even Algeria.
Carmel Garcia
Feb 7th, 10:35
Even the Triq taċ-Ċawsli between Fgura and Zabbar. It's full of potholes. It one of the busiest road for traffic in the south. When is the Government going to resurface this street? Some time next century?
Charles W. Sammut
Feb 7th, 10:14
If TM has the safety of motorists so much at heart it should start filling in the thousands of potholes and resurfacing the hundreds of kilometres of atrocious tracks which pass off as roads in this third world country.
M Busuttil
Feb 7th, 10:34
Agree......try to pass near the Arriva terminal in Hal Qormi (next to the Lowenbrau factory) and you will find 3 craters not potholes!! (btw road has just been resurfaced one month ago)
Maria Brincat
Feb 7th, 16:40
agree 100% mr.busuttil,
road was re-surfaced..rather patched, imma ma' l-ewwel bexxa xita telaq kollox.. Did you see the water near the Lowenbrau roundabout this morning?? Dak anki lili jgorr, ahseb u ara il-kocc zrar u qatran li tefghu!!
Mr Tony Gatt
Feb 7th, 10:03
It's -3C here in Chester. I blame the Tory government for that!!
M Cachia
Feb 7th, 10:37
So true and shame on the UK transport services for all this snow !!
Alex Ellul
Feb 7th, 11:29
Mr. Gatt, you Brits have been paying through your nose to fund carbon credits and alternative medicine, I mean energy in the hope of reducing the temperature of the planet. Considering the current freezing records being broken, I think thatyou are paying too much carbon taxes. If you were to reduce carbon taxes maybe the temperature would go up...LOL
William Flynn
Feb 7th, 12:20
Tony, with your nautical background, you’d be familiar with the saying "Brass Monkeys". I'd explain it; but they’d likely censor it. Anyhow -3C is definitely "Brass Monkeys".
It is very near the lowest temp I've ever experienced - 4C in Antarctica in bright sunshine in mid-SUMMER if you please! It got much colder at night but I never got out at night. Man, I never want to be that cold ever again.
My friends from Canada say I’m a wuss but I don’t care.
Mr Tony Gatt
Feb 7th, 17:11
@ William Flynn
Actually it warmed up to zero degrees later so I went out for a round of golf with my friends, where I met two brass monkeys loooking for a welder!
I used to sail to Canada and Finland in the winter on an ice-class ship, where -20C was not uncommon; -3C is semi-tropical really.
Mr Tony Gatt
Feb 7th, 17:25
@ Alex Ellul,
This global warming malarkey is making millions for companies manufacturing useless windmills which produce nothing when there is a high-pressure area, such as now; it is a goldmine for some and we are paying through the nose.
By the way, I'm not a Brit., just a Maltese living in Englandbut paying U.K. tax.
Thomas C. Cassar
Feb 7th, 09:41
Il-Gvern ghandu jzarma TM ghax kemm ilha hemm hi l-affarijiet aktar iggravaw, konnha qeghdin sew u gejna aghar. Tkellem pulizija kollha jfarfru fuqha, anqas haqq il-miljuni li qed tibla lill-pajjiz.
Paul Barrett
Feb 7th, 09:31
GAS EMERGENCY IN ITALY
Whatever finally transpires for fuel for the power station, current or future, there is no doubt that we must be able to switch from one basic fuel to another instantly and seamlessly.
Richard Galea
Feb 7th, 09:31
FOOLS........
Joseph Galea
Feb 7th, 09:10
SHAME ON YOU TRANSPORT MALTA for closing Garibaldi Street this morning without any notice! Loads of traffic this morning!!!!
Clive Gerada
Feb 7th, 09:30
Like
Bernard Pollacco
Feb 7th, 09:39
read well...they had to IMMEDIETLY close it don't think they had the chance to stay phoning the times...if you wanted to go through the road a pose a risk to your safety go ahead
Edward Curmi
Feb 7th, 09:48
Shame on them for closing road to protect motorists???? Are you serious??
A. Borg
Feb 7th, 10:19
Bernard Pollacco
They're lying. Yesterday at 5pm it was already closed!
They had time to inform the motorist that they will find it close today!
Robert Mifsud
Feb 7th, 10:30
You'r funny. If there was an accident would you have complained on TM because they didn't close the road?
Such a negative attitude. The road had to be closed for safety reasons. It was closed for persons like you that uses it regularly to avoid accidents. That is; for YOUR own good and others.
What I stated is obvious but wanted tot clear it out for you since you didn't get it.