Temperatures expected to drop over the weekend, Met Office says

Temperatures over the Maltese islands are expected to subside over the weekend, as an incoming trough of low pressure from Northern Europe will hit the archipelago.

The Met Office told MaltaToday the maximum temperature is expected to reach 27°C on Saturday, remaining in the mid to high 20s until Thursday.

It also said a high of 31.7°C was recorded on Wednesday. However, this high did not set any new records for October, as the highest temperature for the month was recorded in October 1999 at 34.5°C.

Including Friday’s temperature, the mean maximum temperature for October 2023 currently stands at 28.4°C, which is higher than the monthly climatic norm (1991-2020) of 25°C.

“This is not unusual; when looking at the period from 1991 to 2020, one can see that there were 11 years when October’s mean maximum temperature exceeded the norm of 25°C, with October 2001 topping the list with a mean maximum temperature of 27.4°C, closely followed by 1999 and 2013 when it stood at 27.2°C,” the Met Office told this newspaper.

The warm weather experienced this week resulted from a stagnant slack area of high pressure that was stationed over the Mediterranean. This brought stable weather conditions and warm temperatures, which continued to rise as a result of winds blowing from over the Sahara.