Damaging wind gusts of up to 85kmh (Force 9) bringing large tree branches down in Valletta. This was due to the slip southwards of a low pressure system containing the remanants of ex-hurricane Gonzales. The track of this storm is shown within the thumbnails. However, ex-Gonzales did not cause heavy rain or thunderstorms over the Maltese Islands as the cold front (which was intense) had moved into an environment with poor lapse rates and the said front had overrun its upper level forcing (that is the upper level low was lagging behind the surface cold front). Indeed, it picked up a lot of dust making for a rather hazy atmosphere and indeed the wind damage to large trees may have been exacerbated due to the trees being still full of leaves following a long period of calmness and almost Summer weather. The second thumbnail shows the mundane cumulus clouds of the cold front. Such wind storms are rare in Malta for late October including the track of the ex-hurricane Gonzles. Fallen tree brances were observed on various parts of the Maltese Islands including Marsa and Zurrieq.