The Meteorological Office is expecting to issue a strong wind warning tomorrow as the Maltese islands brace for a wet and windy weekend.

Windy and isolated showers are predicted for Friday and Saturday with thundery showers forecast on Sunday, with the temperature set to feel like 11°C all weekend. 

It comes after temperatures for December reached a 100-year high in Malta as warm weather records were smashed across Europe.

The Met Office weather forecast for the next seven days.

However, the polar cyclone Hannelore, currently over western France, is expected to dissipate once it reaches central Italy overnight between Friday and Saturday, largely missing Malta. 

“The current low pressure will lead to stronger winds over the Maltese Islands as of tomorrow (Friday) morning when very strong winds (force 7) from the southwest are expected,” a spokesperson for the Met Office told Times of Malta on Thursday.

“Heavy precipitation is not expected until Sunday, when showers, which are likely to be thundery, will affect the central Mediterranean.”

Strong winds and unstable weather are “expected” at this time of year, with precipitation having been recorded every January from 1923 to 2022. 

The wettest January was January 2009 with 248.2 mm of rainfall, while the driest January was January 1983 with a total of 8.5 mm of rainfall, the spokesperson added. 

It is relatively common for thunderstorms to occur in January. The stormiest January was January 1954, with a total of 9 thundery days.

In the past 70 years, there have only been four years when no thunderstorms were recorded in the month of January: 1969, 1974, 2004 and 2020.