Updated 3pm with Met Office comments

Hailstones covered parts of the south east of Malta on Friday as the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning. 

While much of the country enjoyed mild and fair weather, people in Birżebbuġa were pelted with ice during a short hailstorm. 

The Met Office said its 'Be Aware' yellow weather warning will be in place until 4pm, and that "isolated hail showers may affect certain areas of the Maltese Islands".

A video sent to Times of Malta on Friday afternoon shows a front porch in the southern town and its adjacent street pelted with hail.

Other pictures posted on the Maltese weather page show balls of ice around an inch in diameter.

By 2pm, the hailstorm had ended, and the ice melted under the relatively warm and bright sun.

A spokesperson for the Met office said Friday's hail was caused by a trough of low pressure, currently over the Gulf of Genoa, extending towards the central Mediterranean and Malta. 

"This is causing instability in the atmosphere which in turn produces enough energy for a cloud to develop into what we call a Towering Cumulus or a Cumulonimbus cloud. These clouds develop significantly into the atmosphere and produce hail showers".

These types of showers are usually isolated and tend to be short lived, the spokesperson said. 

By 2 p.m., the hailstorm ended, and the ice, under the relatively warm and bright sun, melted. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Malta is in for a windy weekend with isolated showers also forecast for Saturday, according to the Met Office. 

A total of four occurrences of hail we reported in 2024, once in January, once in February, and twice in December.

The average number of hailstorms last year was lower than the norm, which is seven, the Met Office spokesperson said.