Thunder and rain that hit Malta on Wednesday afternoon are expected to stretch into Thursday, with wet weather likely to be replaced by high-speed winds on Saturday.

Rainfall meters at weather stations across Malta and Gozo were working overtime on Wednesday as the skies opened after weeks of dry weather.

A weather station in Luqa recorded 12.1mm of rain per 24 hours as of 4pm, while others in Bengħajsa, Xewkija and Mosta recorded around 20mm.

In Dingli, a massive 37.6mm of rain per 24 hours was recorded.

Meteorological forecasts predict a miserable few upcoming days for outdoor buffs.

On Thursday, thundery showers with winds reaching force 5 on the Beaufort Scale are poised to continue, albeit from a south-southwest direction rather than the north-northwest direction they were blowing from on Wednesday.

Stormy weather also impacted ships at sea on Wednesday.

The rain will moderate on Friday, the Malta International Airport meteorological station reports, when isolated showers are expected with a relatively calm southwesterly force 3 wind.

Those isolated showers will continue on Saturday but will be accompanied by west-northwesterly winds rising to up to near-gale speeds of force 7.

Those winds will continue blowing at force 5 and 6 on Sunday before moderating on Monday.

Wednesday’s thunderstorm heralds a break from the record dry weather that Malta has experienced this autumn.

Last month was the driest October recorded in over a century, with only 0.2mm of rain, and November has also been largely bereft of rain.

The wet Wednesday also brought with it a sudden drop in temperature that is expected to persist.

While temperatures persisted above the 20 degrees Celcius mark until earlier this week, they are now expected to gradually drop from highs of 19 on Thursday to 17 by Sunday.