Chances are if you looked up at anytime these past couple days, you might have seen a solar halo, similar to the one in the photo below.

The solar halo, referred to as 22° halo in meteorology, is a sign that bad weather will soon hit the islands as it forms due to low pressure in the air.

The halo is optical phenomenon as “it is a ring that occurs with an apparent radius of 22° around the Sun (or Moon)”, the ‘Maltese Islands Weather’ page explained.

“It forms as incoming direct sunlight (or moonlight) is refracted in millions of hexagonal ice crystals making up high-level clouds”, the page continued.

In fact, the cloud picture in the photo above is cirrostratus cloud that is made up of ice crystals at an altitude of 6,000 metres to 13,000 metres.

But how is this phenomenon a sign of impending bad weather?

The ice crystals have a tendency to form as result of advancing low pressure. In fact, Malta and Gozo are soon expecting strong northwesterly winds and isolated showers over Thursday and Friday.

In Malta, many farmers refer to this phenomenon as ‘il-qiegha tax-xemx’ and they too use it to refer to it to predict whether it would rain or not.

Facebook/Maltese Islands Weather