Although there is still one week to go till the end of the month, January 2006 is already one of the 10 wettest Januaries ever recorded, according to the Meteorological Office.

Until noon of yesterday, 155mm of rain fell in the first 24 days, weather forecaster Brian Micallef told The Malta Independent yesterday.

The wettest January was in 1973, when 225mm of rain fell. The driest January was in 1983 when only 8.5mm of rain fell.

Apart from being one of the wettest, this month is proving to be extremely cold too and this week it has been colder than normal.

The maximum temperature in the past few days has been around 11°C, “four degrees less than the average temperature for this time of the year,” Mr Micallef said.

The lowest temperature registered this month so far was 5.5°C. But the temperature was expected to go down ever lower last night, to between 4°C or 5°C, a similar temperature to the one expected for tonight too.

The maximum temperature on the coldest day in January was registered on two occasions, in 1962 and 1968, when the thermometer just reached 7.2°C. The minimum temperature on the coldest day in January was in 1983, at 2.2°C.

Although it is not the coldest month ever recorded – at least so far – Mr Micallef pointed out that the temperatures are still below average.

So far this month, there have already been four days of hail. The month with most days when it hailed was January last year when it hailed on seven days. However, there is still a week to go till the end of the month so there is still time for the record to be broken, Mr Micallef added.

He said the cold weather was caused by the high pressure over Eastern Europe, which is itself experiencing temperatures well below the zero mark.

“A north-eastern wind is bringing the cold air to the central Mediterranean area. However, it passes over the Ionian sea which warms up the temperature by a few degrees.”

The cold spell will remain over the Maltese islands until the end of this week, but is expected to start getting less cold gradually as from Friday.

But there could be more bad weather on the way.

According to a statement issued by the Malta Weather Services, the cold polar air may return next week with the possibility of more showers, thunderstorms and hail.

The cold over Europe is expected to ease during the weekend but will re-intensify next week, Malta Weather Services said.