BERLIN, July 8: The heavy rains and thunderstorms that have doused Berlin's heat wave in the last two days will have left the capital by Sunday's World Cup final, Germany's leading meteorologist said on Saturday.

Joerg Kachelmann, ARD television's weather forecaster, said that temperatures at kick-off at 8.00pm on Sunday for the match at Olympiastadion between Italy and France would be 24 degrees.

That is well below the stifling highs of 35 degrees recorded two days ago in western sections of Berlin around the stadium before a series of thunderstorms drenched the city.

“We're going to see clouds and patches of blue skies in between with a 20 percent chance of showers,” Kachelmann said of the weather at the stadium on Sunday.

“The temperature at 8.00pm will be 24 degrees and it will be only slightly cooler at about 21 degrees when the World Cup is handed over later,” he added.

“That's not too bad as far as heat and humidity is concerned,” Kachelmann said. “No deluge should be expected either.”

A thunderstorm on Friday evening forced the cancellation of an outdoor concert. There were further spells of rain on Saturday.—Reuters