Yesterday was the hottest May day since records started being kept by the Meteorological Office 84 years ago, as temperatures soared for the second consecutive day.

The temperature reached 35.3°C which is some 10 degrees higher than the average for this time of the year. The warmest May days before yesterday were those of May 22-23, 1945 when the thermometer reached 34.4°C.

Although the winds were generally from an easterly or southeasterly direction, the atmosphere above the central Mediterranean was continuously descending from the upper levels to the ground, thus becoming warm and dry through being compressed, a process called subsidence.

A weak front is now expected to pass over the Maltese Islands bringing along some cloud. Temperatures should go down to the mid to high 20s as a moderate northwesterly wind brings some cooler air