Moderate to heavy showers together with force 7 winds expected to hit Malta throughout the next couple of days, MET office announced.

The orange alert was issued early Wednesday morning and the worst of the storm from the North-East is expected to hit between Wednesday and Thursday.

The expected thunderstorms are on their way from Sicily due to a low pressure system which has caused a hurricane in the Mediterranean, known as a Medicane.

The eye of the hurricane is expected to come close to the North East regions of Malta after making its way from Sicily, which left two people dead and multiple areas of the region flooded and still on high alert.

The East and NorthEast regions of Malta are expected to be affected the worst and people are advised not to visit exposed areas.

These winds have also disrupted Thursday’s Virtu Ferries operations between Malta and Sicily.

 

Met Office statement

The current bout of inclement weather is caused by low pressure, or depression, which developed to the South of Malta yesterday and moved to the east of the Gulf of Sirte, resulting in heavy precipitation. Although this weather pattern is expected to continue over the coming days, heavy rain showers are not expected, with the Meteorological Office reporting that the heaviest precipitation occurred overnight between the 25th and 26th of October.

Despite reports that the Maltese islands will be affected by a medicane, which is a tropical-like cyclone bringing average wind speeds which are equal to or greater than 54 knots, the Meteorological Office confirmed that the current depression is not a medicane. However, by the 29th of October, the depression can intensify to a medicane and will be positioned over the Ionian Sea.

For this reason, the Meteorological Office is not expecting to issue red warnings in the coming days but is advising the public to be prepared as rather strong to strong winds from the East Northeast will become strong to very strong later today, particularly in exposed areas. Throughout the day, wet conditions are expected, with cloudy skies and showers which may possibly be thundery.

Similarly, the Meteorological Office is forecasting cloudy weather tomorrow, with showers which may be thundery at times. However, the wind will back to Northeast and decrease to rather strong to strong, turning Northwesterly later in the day.

The outlook for Friday is also rather cloudy with isolated showers, accompanied by rather strong to strong winds blowing from the West Northwest.