January was an extraordinary month in weather terms with temperatures among the warmest registered in the past 84 years.
The Meteorological Office said yesterday that days during January had an average high of 17.5°C, making them the warmest January days throughout the 84-year period since records began in 1923 at the Meteorological Office now forming part of Malta International Airport plc.
This is a hefty rise of 2.5°C above the average. The warmest day was Saturday 20 when the temperature reached a high of 21.9°C. The warmest January day ever recorded was the 29th in 1939 with 22.8°C.
January nights with an average temperature of 11.5°C were warmer, by 1.8°C, than normal. The warmest night was that between the 22nd and 23rd when the mercury reached its lowest at 15.9°C, a few minutes around dawn. The coolest night last month was that between the 25th and 26th when the thermometer reached a minimum of 8.9°C. The lowest temperature on record was that of 29 January 1981 when the temperature was only 1.4 degrees above freezing.
These temperature figures for January this year are more typical of Easter time (early to mid-April) rather than for the first month of the year.
Last month was the second driest January in the past 84 years. With only five rain days and a mere total of 8.6 mm, rainfall was in sharp contrast with last year’s when January then was the second wettest ever recorded. The driest ever was January of 1983 with 8.5 mm. The average rainfall for January is 95.5mm.
During January thunder was heard on one day, the 3rd of the month, during a short lived hail shower. Fog was not observed at the airport last month.
With an average speed of 7.1 knots (13.3 kilometres per hour) the wind at Malta International Airport last month was very sluggish, and for 99 per cent of the time kept within the light to moderate speed bracket. The most frequent direction was the westerly.
The strongest gust was 39 knots (45 mph or 72 kilometres per hour) from a northwest by west direction on the 12th of the month. The strongest gusts measured at the Meteorological Office in January were 61 knots (113 kilometres per hour), which were recorded in 1951, 1978 and 1994.
January was sunnier than average with a mean of six hours and 12 minutes of bright sunshine a day, which is 63 per cent of the sunshine possible during January. This means that we had a total of 37 hours and 12 minutes more sunshine than an average January. The brightest days were the 11th, 12th, 14th and 24th with 9 hours and 18 minutes of dazzling sunshine, while the dullest was the 26th when the sun shone for barely 24 minutes.
More information is available at www.maltairport.com/weather.