With an average of seven hours and 24 minutes of sunshine a day, last month was one of the sunniest Novembers in the past 80 years, that is since 1927, when the Meteorological Office, now forming part of Malta International Airport, began logging the number of hours of sunshine.
The sunniest November on record was in 1963, with a daily average of eight hours and 18 minutes of sunshine. However, the brightest day last month was the 8th, with 10 hours and six minutes of sunshine, while the dullest was the 6th, with just six minutes.
November nights, with an average minimum temperature of 15°C, were warmer than the 84-year average, but since 1922 there have been 29 Novembers that were actually warmer – the warmest being that of 1926, with an average of 17.4°C. The coolest it reached last month was 11.5°C on the 5th, 6th and 12th of the month. The coldest November night on record was in 1995, when at dawn on the 23rd the mercury settled at five degrees above freezing.
Average daytime temperatures last month were only slightly higher than normal. The highest temperature reached was 23.3°C on the second of the month. The warmest November day since 1922 was 6 November 1998, when the thermometer climbed to 28.2°C.
With 10 rainy days, and a total of 57 mm, rainfall last month was 33 mm below average. The heaviest downpour, 18.4 mm, occurred during a thunderstorm which lasted throughout the night of the 27/28th. The wettest November since 1922 was that of 1999, when 420.3 mm drenched the Maltese Islands.
The wind at Malta International Airport last month was, as it has been in the past few months, quite slack, with an average speed of 6.2 knots (7.1 mph or 11.5 kilometres per hour) and 99 per cent of the time within the light to moderate speed bracket. The most frequent direction was west-northwest. The strongest gust was 31 knots (36 mph or 57 kilometres per hour) from a west-northwest direction on the 23rd of the month. The strongest gust ever recorded in November at Malta International Airport was 60 knots (69 mph or 111 kilometres per hour) from the north-northwest on the 5th November 1988.
The Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport is Malta’s national meteorological service, appointed by the government to provide weather services to the community. It has records dating from 1947 at the airport and since 1922 from Pieta and Valletta. The only official weather forecasts, reports and warnings are those issued by the Malta International Airport Meteorological Office.