HEAVY THUNDERSTORMS AND FLOODS – 25th September 2007

On 25th September 2007, a short-wave upper-level trough produced an Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) which passed over the Maltese Islands during the early morning causing heavy thundery rain showers and blustery gusts especially over Gozo. Cars with people inside were carried away by the flood waters at Bahar ic-Caghaq, while strong gusts broke off some big tree branches in Gozo between Nadur and Victoria. Some big boulders at Dahlet Qorrot in Gozo were dislodged by the rain and these crashed down in front of some boat houses. Luckily no one was injured in any of these incidents.

Today’s heavy rainfall and thunderstorms were caused due to an short-wave upper-level low pressure system which passed quickly over the central Mediterranean bringing relatively cold air over a warm sea, creating a great deal of instability with lots of clouds and heavy rain showers and thunderstorms.

There was lots of moisture in the atmosphere and the lifted index was of -5.8 and CAPE of 1751J/Kg (see sounding to the left above).  Some rainfall totals for this storm (from around 5am to 10pm) for some localities were: Bahar ic-Caghaq 40.8mm, Kalkara 30.6mm, Zurrieq 30.4mm, Nadur 50.4mm, Zebbug Gozo 50.8mm, Gharb 59.8mm.

PHOTOS TAKEN BY JAMES DELMAR, IVAN BARTOLO & ALFRED PORTELLI.