Unless you were lucky enough to be off the island or possibly living under a rock, you’d know that this weekend the Maltese Islands experienced some mad and frightening weather that wreaked quite some havoc across Malta and Gozo. We contacted the experts to weigh in on the subject.
Eric Aloisio via Malta Weather / Father
The crazy weekend storm
“Last weekend's Gregale (or Grigalata) was one of the worst ever storms to hit the Maltese Islands though it was far from breaking any records as sometimes even individual thunderstorms produce damaging winds but of course on a much smaller scale,” Malta Weather told Guide Me Malta.
“Hurricane force winds are considered as sustained winds over 118kmh which was far from the case yesterday.”
Malta Weather also commented that “this was definitely NOT a Mediterranean hurricane, or Medicane, as yesterday's low pressure system was a cold-core one. However, yesterday's storm can be classified as a Mediterranean cyclone because it was a low pressure system that formed in the Mediterranean and did not come from elsewhere (such as from the Atlantic).”
Could this all be a result of climate change?
“As such, the storm itself is not a direct result of climate change as we have had similar events in the past (one such classic example is when Bush and Gorbachev met in Malta),” said Malta Weather. “However, due to warming temperatures and rising sea levels, we can expect more damage in the future from similar storms as the winds will intensify even more due to the ever-increasing stored energy for a sea which is getting warmer.”
Remember to stay safe when the elements get too rough!