Thundery showers, strong winds hit Malta

Heavy rainfall hit the Maltese islands on Wednesday with sporadic, thundery showers forecast till up to 10pm, and some isolated showers with a rather strong to strong Easterly wind expected overnight.

Many parts of Malta were hit by severe rainfall in the afternoon, with traffic jams reported in most of the areas normally affected by heavy rain, including Msida, Birkirkara and Balzan.

11.2mm of rain were recorded in Luqa in the last 24 hours.

For most of the day the skies were overcast as the wind gathered momentum growing from force 4 to 5 in the afternoon, turning the sea from moderate to moderate-to-rough.

The temperature fell to 20°C with a high of 26°C.

The weather for Thursday was forecast to be partly to rather cloudy with some isolated showers as a ridge of high pressure moves towards the central Mediterranean and Libya.

The forecast calls for rather strong east-northeast winds becoming moderate easterly, while visibility was expected to be good except in rain showers.