There is some good news for those of you who simply love to swim. Till now, countless bays around the Maltese Islands have been plagued by extensive jellyfish blooms. As described in a post last weekend, this year’s jellyfish bloom occurred very late. Jellyfish blooms only occur at specific sea surface temperatures. This year, because of unseasonably cold spring weather, the ideal environmental conditions for jellyfish blooms were only reached weeks ago. All this is about to change though, thanks to a heat spell which has gripped much of the western and central Mediterranean. The intense heat will help in raising sea surface temperature. The sea surface temperature was still at 20 C last weekend. 20 C is ideal for jellyfish blooms. Yesterday, the sea surface temperature rose to 21 C. Over the coming days it will continue to rise, hitting the 23 C level by the weekend. This means that environmental conditions will no longer favour jellyfish blooms, allowing you to enjoy the many beaches more comfortably and safely.

Għandna aħbar tajba għal dawk li jħobbu jgħumu. Sa issa, ħafna bajjiet madwar il-Gżejjer Maltin sfaw miżgħuda b’ħafna bram. Kif deskritt f’post fi tmiem il-ġimgħa, il-jellyfish blooms ta’ din is-sena seħħew tard ferm. Jellyfish blooms iseħħu biss f’temperaturi tal-baħar speċifiċi. Din is-sena, minħabba li kellna rebbiegħa kiesħa aktar mis-soltu, il-kundizzjonijiet ambjentali ideali għal jellyfish blooms ġew milħuqa ftit ġimgħat ilu. Dan kollu se jinbidel pero, grazzi għas-sħana li ħakmet il-punent u ċ-ċentru tal-Mediterran. Din is-sħana intensa se twassal biex tibda tiela t-temperatura tal-baħar. It-temperatura tal-baħar kienet għadha 20 C fi tmiem il-ġimgħa. 20 C huwa ideali għal jellyfish blooms. Il-bieraħ, it-temperatura tal-baħar laħqet 21 C. Fil-jiem li ġejjin din se tkompli togħla, u se tilħaq 23 C fi tmiem il-ġimgħa. Dan ifisser li l-kundizzjonijiet ambjentali mhux se jibqgħu jiffavorixxu jellyfish blooms, u għalhekk se tkunu tistgħu tgawdu l-ħafna bajjiet tagħna b’aktar kumdita u sigurta.