For the second consecutive day temperature records were broken – but yesterday’s beat them all, said the Meteorological Office.

35.3°C – this was the highest temperature reached yesterday at Malta International Airport – and the hottest May day since records started being kept by the Meteorological Office 84 years ago in 1922. This is 10 degrees higher than the average for this time of the year.

The warmest May days before yesterday were those of 22 and 23 May 1945, when the thermometer showed 34.4°C at its highest point.

Although the winds were generally from an easterly or southeasterly direction, the atmosphere above the central Mediterranean was continuously descending from the upper levels to the ground – thus becoming warm and dry through being compressed, a process called subsidence.

A weak front is expected to pass over the Maltese Islands tomorrow. This is expected to bring along some cloud and temperatures will go down to the mid to high 20s as a moderate northwesterly wind brings with it some cooler air.

The Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport, Malta’s National Meteorological Service, is the provider of the only official weather reports, forecasts and warnings to the community.