If you were feeling the heat on Wednesday then it was with good reason: the first day of November broke the record for the warmest temperature ever recorded during the month of November in Malta.

Facebook page Maltese Islands Weather said that the Met Office at the Malta International Airport measured a maximum temperature of 29.1°C.

This broke the previous record of 28.2°C set in 1998.

A map produced by the Facebook page showed that the temperature recorded in Malta was hotter than almost all of the North African coast, and that only Cyprus was hotter when considering European countries.

In what has been described by many as something of an extended summer, temperatures have not decreased by all that much since September, with the month of October and therefore the start of autumn still being characterised by abnormally high temperatures and a distinct lack of rainfall.

That may change in the coming days, with forecasts showing that the wind is expected to pick up over the coming weekend, bringing with it some rain and a drop in temperature.