Today - sun and unstable cloudiness, temperatures up to 26 degrees. Tomorrow, Saturday, 16 May - a radical change. Cyclonic activity in the Italian region (the Genoa cyclone) will reach Macedonia and bring rain, thunder, strong wind from the south and south-west, and locally heavy downpour conditions. The Meteo Alarm forecast is that in some spots, more than 30 litres per square metre could fall, accompanied by winds over 70 kilometres per hour and possible hail.

The morning will be cool - 7 to 14 degrees. Daytime - 17 to 23. In Skopje: 11 degrees in the morning, up to 22 in the afternoon. But unlike the standard afternoon summer instability, this is part of a bigger cyclonic structure - which means the conditions are not limited to a single basin-mountain area, but cover a larger share of the country's territory.

May and June in Macedonia traditionally bring the largest material damage from storms - hail in agricultural areas, flash floods in urban neighbourhoods that were never designed for underground drainage, and overflowing of smaller rivers. The Skopje sewage and drainage network has, for years, been unable to handle the intensity of "short but heavy" rainfall. When 30 litres per square metre fall in one to two hours, much of the city's underpasses and underground car parks fill with water.

The recommendation is standard and predictable: avoid open spaces and isolated trees during thunderstorms, protect vehicles from strong winds. The less standard recommendation: check how the streets around your home drain and how the underpass you drive through behaves. Cyclones come and go in a few hours. The damage they leave behind sticks around longer.