Final blast of winter expected this week

Cold dry arctic air entering the much warmer and moister Mediterranean is going to 'create' a deep low pressure system tomorrow Wednesday which will intensify and move slowly across the Italian peninsula and then towards the Balkans.

According to maltaweathersite.com, for the Maltese Islands, this means moderate to strong winds on Wednesday with some rain showers in the afternoon and evening followed by a shift to gale force 8 to 9  westerly to west northwesterly winds on Thursday and Friday together with phenomenally-high seas of at least 7 metres and possibly even higher at times from a westerly to westnorthwesterly direction.

Swell heights of up to 3.5 metres are also expected.

Rain showers and small hail are also expected on Thursday and Friday. However, the weather will improve on Saturday with partly cloudy skies and gradually weakening winds.

Temperatures will also drop significantly with a high of only 13°C on Thursday and 11°C on Friday and lows of 8°C to 9°C. These temperatures will feel even colder because of the strong winds (wind chill effect) and the real-feel temperature will go down to 3°C to 4°C at times on Friday.

Worst effected will be locations and hilltops exposed to westerly to northwesterly winds, including the beaches of Marsalforn and Dwejra in Gozo, and along the westerly coast of Malta including Cirkewwa, Paradise Bay, Anchor Bay (and Popeye Village), Golden Bay, Ghajn Tuffieha Bay and Gnejna Bay. Any boats berthed here should be removed as soon as possible. One should also expect some disruption to the Gozo ferry service on Thursday and Friday.

MaltaWeatherSite provides detailed weather forecasts including a detailed 7-day marine weather forecast, a live weather webcam and a hazardous weather outlook for the next 7 days on www.maltaweathersite.com.