Malta was hit with a deluge of rain yesterday that is rarely seen even in the wet winter months, never mind in the first week in June.

Just one day of rainfall has made June 2007 the wettest June ever since records have been kept – in Valletta since 1865 and in Luqa since 1948.

In fact, Malta Weather said yesterday that in just a few hours, 57.2 mm fell in Bahar ic-Caghaq and 53 mm in Naxxar (over Sunday and Monday), eclipsing the previous record for the whole of June, which stood at 34.5 mm in 1915.

However, there were luckily no reports of serious injuries, despite a busy 24 hours for the police and the Civil Protection Department.

The first thunderstorms began to brew at about 7am and the Coast Road was completely swamped as a result, with run off water and residue from Maghtab flooding the road. However, worse was to come at about 2pm, when massive and concentrated rainstorms battered the island.

Motorists were severely hampered in their efforts to travel, as visibility was reduced to just a few metres. Traffic around the island crawled to a standstill, as motorists threaded their way slowly around broken down cars, manhole covers, building stones, torrents of water and various other obstacles.

Valley Road in Birkirkara, an area notoriously prone to flooding, looked like something akin to white water rapids, except the colour was actually brown. The Regional Road was also flooded, especially the Manoel Dimech Bridge, where traffic was gridlocked. In fact, the police issued several warnings for people to stay away from the Msida area and the Coast Road, but these were not heeded by everyone. Valley Road was closed to traffic for most of the day.

CPD Director Peter Cordina told this newspaper that the hardest hit areas were Birkirkara, St Julian’s, Mosta, Sliema and Naxxar, where people had to be rescued from their vehicles that had stalled in the floodwater. Mr Cordina could not give an exact number of rescues, but said: “We carried out a lot of rescues – some cars were dragged off the road as a result of the floods.”

He also said that initial reports that a street had collapsed in Birkirkara were unfounded and that it was, in fact, a wall. There were no reports of people being dragged away by the water. Mr Cordina said that some 25 members of his department, plus volunteers, had worked through the day yesterday, in collaboration with the police. The AFM’s emergency services had not been involved, he said.

Malta Weather said that yesterday morning broke all records for rainfall for June, with 43.6mm of rainfall measured at Bahar ic-Caghaq and 40.2mm at Naxxar in just a few hours of heavy rain.

Going back to rainfall records taken in Valletta since 1865 and in Luqa since 1948, the previous highest rainfall for the whole month of June was 34.5mm in 1915. It had also rained on Sunday, so the total amount for Bahar ic-Caghaq and Naxxar was 57.2mm and 53.0mm respectively. A spokesman said there was also still a chance of more rain and thunderstorms today and more rain cannot be excluded later on in the month to push this record up further.

The heavy rainfall and thunderstorms were due to an upper-level low pressure system over the central Mediterranean bringing relatively cool air over a warm sea and creating a great deal of instability, with a lot of cloud and heavy rain showers and thunderstorms. This was the same system that affected Rome on Sunday morning. Although it cannot be said that yesterday’s heavy rainfall in some areas was due to global warming, it is a fact that a warmer atmosphere and a warmer sea contribute to heavier than average rainfall in one-off storms, said Malta Weather, adding that it is anticipated there will be more of this type of storm in the future.

Malta Weather Services said that it had been issuing warnings of the storms since last Tuesday and a further warning was issued on Friday. It said people can register for forecasts by phoning 5004-3344 or by sending an email to info@maltaweather.net

Forecasts can also be obtained from the website on www.maltaweather.com

A spokesman from the Resources and Infrastructure Ministry said that the storm water project in Qormi and Marsa had stood up to the floods and that no complaints had been received.