While our daily hours of sunshine are gradually starting to increase, the Maltese Islands are not surrendering their comfortably cool temperatures just yet. April’s mean air temperature stood at 15.9°C, cooling down slightly from the climate norm of 16.1°C. Typically, the month’s mean maximum temperature reaches 19.8°C, but a cooler-than-average April saw the mean maximum temperature drop by 0.7°C.

The mean minimum temperature remained relatively unchanged, warming by a fractional 0.2°C when compared to the climate norm of 12.4°C.

April showers were few and far between, seeing as only 15.4mm of precipitation were measured throughout the month. 39% of the total precipitation was recorded on the 5th of April, making this the wettest day of the month. In fact, the first week of April put the month on course for a gloomy and wet 30-day stretch, with no sunshine at all being recorded on the Maltese Islands on the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th of April. 

To the dismay of many, suspended Saharan dust covered our skies, accompanied by the odd blood rain shower. The red skies which settled over the Islands were blown away by stronger-than-average winds, which maintained a mean speed of 10.3 knots throughout April; this being 0.8 knots stronger than the climate norm.

The long-awaited spring sunshine soon made its way back to the Maltese Islands, making up for the brief spell of unpleasant weather. At 240.7 hours, the April sun shone over the Islands for just 8 hours less than the monthly average. With that said, our days were nonetheless brightened by a daily average of 8 hours of sunshine, with the month’s brightest day, April 28th, registering a total of 12.5 hours of sunshine.