The first two months this year were within a whisker of the record set by January and February of 1955, which had a mean temperature of a far-from-cold 14.5 degrees Celsius. The combined mean temperature of 14.1 degrees Celsius for last January and February made these months the second warmest in the 85-year history of the Meteorological Office.
The Met. Office, today forming part of Malta International Airport plc, said that this time last year it had reported that February was half a degree cooler than the average. On the other hand, February this year, with a mean temperature of 13.8°C, was warmer, by 1.4 degrees more than the average.
Since 1922 there were another eight years with warmer Februaries, with 1955 holding the record at 14.6 °C.
Last month’s daytime temperatures, with a mean of 16.8°C, were 1.5 degrees warmer than the average, making it the warmest February days of the past nine years; however there were another 10 Februaries in the past 85 years that actually had warmer days.
The warmest February days were those of 1960, with an average of 17.7°C. The warmest day last month was 15 February, with a high of 18.8°C.
With a mean of 10.8°C, the nights last month were 1.1°C warmer than average. But they were certainly not the warmest February nights – there were another 10 years with higher temperatures during the night.
The warmest February nights since 1922 were, again, those of 1955 with a mean of 11.9°C.
The night of 5/6 February was the coldest last month when the thermometer slipped down to 4.9°C. The chilliest February night on record was that of 7/8 February 1956 when the thermometer showed a minimum of 1.7°C.
February was also very dry. The Met. Office said that with only 17.8mm rainfall, last month was less than a third of the average for the month. Rainfall in February is, generally speaking, quite erratic – months of plenty are often followed by lean months. However there were only nine other Februaries that were drier than last month, of which five were in the past 30 years.
The highest amount of rainfall last month, 8.4mm, fell during the night of 9/10 February. The wettest February was that of 1965 when the airport rain-gauge collected 187.9mm, while the driest was that of 1957, with only 3.5mm.
The mean wind speed last month was 9.2 knots (10.6mph or 17 kilometres per hour) which is somewhat less than average. The highest gust was recorded on 13 February, at 48 knots (55mph or 89 kilometres per hour) from a northwesterly direction. The most frequent direction last month was the northwest.
The strongest gust ever measured in February by the Meteorological Office was 70 knots (81mph or 130 kilometres per hour) from a northwesterly direction on 4 February 1955.
With an average of five hours and 42 minutes of bright sunshine a day, February was slightly cloudier than normal.
The brightest day was 17 February with 10 hours and six minutes of bright sunshine, while the sky was completely overcast on two days – 22 and the 24 February.