An early-morning thunderstorm brought traffic to a standstill yesterday. Far more rain – 15.5mm – had fallen by noon than the average of 9.8mm that falls during the whole of May. Bengħajsa saw the most rainfall at 22.8mm, followed by Valletta with 19.4 mm. Photos: Chris Sant FournierAn early morning thunderstorm brought traffic to a standstill and made T-shirts suddenly seem out of season.
The amount of rain that fell was measured at 15.5mm by noon, far higher than the average of 9.8 mm that falls during the whole of May.
Bengħajsa saw the highest rainfall yesterday, at 22.8mm, followed by Valletta with 19.4 mm.
The uncharacteristic weather was caused by an area of low pressure across northern Libya that extended to the centre of the Mediterranean towards Sicily.
However, the weather today was expected to improve, and tomorrow the temperature is expected to soar up to 27˚C. Yesterday’s downpour should not have come as a complete surprise, as meteorologists had forecast thunderstorms over the weekend.
Yet many took this warning lightly, possibly due to the fact that up to a few days ago the weather was fine and temperatures hovered above the 25˚C mark.
Meanwhile, in its monthly report, the Met Office noted yesterday that April was slightly cooler and drier than the norm, with a mean temperature of 15.9˚C, which is 0.2˚C below the monthly average.
Bengħajsa saw the highest rainfall,at 22.8mm
In contrast to this month, only 4.6mm of rain fell in April, considerably lower than the norm of 20.8mm. On the other hand, the average sea temperature was 0.4˚C warmer than the norm, reaching 16.5˚C.
The warmest day of last month was the 18th, when the mercury reached 26.1˚C, whereas the coldest night was on the 11th, when the temperature dropped to 7.4˚C.
The warmest ever April day was recorded 30 years ago, when the temperature soared to 30.5˚C, whereas the record low occurred in 1956 at 4.4˚C.