The average temperature last year was 18.9 degrees Celsius – the coolest year in 13 years. The coolest year since 1947 – that is since the Meteorological Office has been operating at the airport – was 1976 with an average temperature of 17.9 ˚C, while the warmest was 2001 with a mean of 19.9 ˚C.
The coolest month last year was January, with a mean temperature of 12.2 ˚C. In the 57 years that the Meteorological Office has been operating at the airport, only January 1953 and February 1965 have been colder at 9.9 ˚C.
May last year was also the coolest for the past 13 years as well as being the eighth coolest May since records began.
The lowest temperature recorded last year was 4.4 ˚C on 23 January.
Since 1947 the lowest temperature ever reached was that of 29 January 1981 when the thermometer plunged to 1.4 ˚C.
The warmest month last year was August, with a mean temperature of 26.7 ˚C , followed closely by July with 26.3 ˚C.
The highest temperature recorded last year was 36.0 ˚C on the 23 July – not even coming anywhere close to the record high of 43.8 ˚C experienced on 9 of August 1999.
The Malta International Airport Meteorological Office also keeps a record of the air temperature at grass level and last years’ lowest temperature at that height was zero ˚C, recorded close to dawn on 31 of January.
The lowest grass height temperature ever reached was -5˚C (minus five) on 9 January 1966.
Rainfall
Rainfall last year, totalling 461.2 millimetres, was 101.6 mm less than the average since records began. 1951 with 955.6 mm was the wettest and 1961 with 274.2 mm was the driest.
There were 84 rain days last year – November and December having 17 rain days each.
From the records, November 1958 had the highest number of rain days, 25, followed by November 1988 with 23 days.
The highest rainfall in a 24-hour period was 73.2 mm on the 2 and 3 November. The wettest day since 1947 was 10 November 1988 with 162.5 mm.
Rain was observed every month of the year except in July; however, the month with most rainfall was November when, spread over 17 days, 148.6 mm of rain were measured.
There were 31 days when thunder was heard, 10 of those were in November alone.
On six days, rain was accompanied by hail and almost half of those were in December.
Sea temperature
The sea temperature averaged 20.2 ˚C for the whole year, which is slightly more than half a degree warmer than the 30-year average.
The year with the highest sea temperature was 2001 with a mean of 20.9 ˚C; however the year with the coolest average sea temperature was 1978 with 18.8 ˚C.
Wind
The monthly average wind speed was 7.4 knots (13.7 kilometres per hour). This is about 1.3 knots (2.4 kph) lighter than the average for the past 30 years.
The highest wind gust was from a westerly direction and reached 42 knots (78 kph) on 30 January.
Fog
Very poor visibility associated with fog affected the airport on a total of seven days, three of which were in October. On average March has the highest number of fog days, 1.2, closely followed by May, with an average of one day of fog a month.
Sunshine hours
On average we enjoyed 8.1 hours of sunshine a day, which is slightly less than the average of the past 57. During these years the brightest year was 1961 with 8.9 hours of sunshine and the dullest was 1976 with 7.5 hours of sun a day.
From a global perspective
(from a World Meteorological Organisation Press Release)
The global mean surface temperature in 2004 is expected to be 0.44 ˚C above the annual average of 14 ˚C according to records maintained by Members of the World Meteorological Organisation.
This value places 2004 as the fourth warmest year in the temperature record since 1861, just behind 2003.
However, 1998 remains the warmest on record when surface temperatures averaged 0.54 ˚C above the 30-year mean.
The last 10 years, with the exception of 1996, are amongst the warmest on record. Rainfall in 2004 was above average for the globe and 2004 was the wettest year since 2000.
During the Atlantic hurricane season 15 named tropical storms developed: the average is around 10.