Hottest July day this year

The highest temperature for July this year was recorded yesterday as the mercury at the Meteorological Office in Luqa hit the 36°C mark, around 5°C higher than the average temperature for this month.

The Met Office told The Sunday Times that the high of 36°C was slightly less than the 36.8°C mean of July's hottest days since 1947.

"There were other hot days in the first two weeks of the month when the temperature shot up to 35.9°C.

"But the temperature is not comparable to the record temperature of 42.7°C recorded in 1988," the Met office said.

The mean highest temperature in July this year was quite close to the average temperature of 31.1°C worked out for all the months of the past 58 years. Therefore, temperatures were "normal for this time of the year", the Met Office added.

Temperatures are expected to go down in the coming days due to instability over the Italian peninsula, which in turn would affect the weather in the Maltese Islands.

"The wind will pick up slightly and we should also expect some isolated showers on Monday and Tuesday. These factors will contribute to a drop in temperature," he said.