This past winter, with an average temperature of 14.8°C, was the warmest since the Meteorological Office, now forming part of Malta International Airport plc, started keeping records in 1922. With a total rainfall of only 106.5mm, this winter was the fourth driest on record.
And now, spring’s first month has also brought warmer than average temperatures. The mean temperature during March was 14.3°C, half a degree higher than the norm. The warmest March, since 1923, was that of 2001 with 16.9°C and the coolest was 1953’s with a mean of 11.4°C.
March days, with an average high of 17.4°C, were 0.7°C warmer than normal. The warmest day was the second of the month, with 21.3°C being the highest temperature reached that day. The warmest March day on record was in 2001 when on the 25th of the month a high of 33.5°C was reached.
March nights, with a mean of 11.3°C, were also warmer than average. The lowest temperature reached was 8°C – shortly before dawn of the 22nd and of the 23rd. However, 3 and 5 March 1949 with a low of 2.2°C are still the coldest March nights since 1922.
Last month, with an average of only six hours and 36 minutes of bright sunshine a day was one of the cloudiest Marches of the past 30 years. The dullest March since sunshine records began in 1927 was that of only three years ago, in 2004, with just four hours and 55 minutes of daily average sunshine. The brightest was that of 1947 with eight hours and 55 minutes of sunshine. The brightest day last month was Saturday the 24th with 11 hours and six minutes of sunshine while an overcast sky completely hid the sun on the 9th.
The Malta International Airport Meteorological Office also keeps a daily record of the lowest temperature at grass height level, a few centimeters above the ground. The coldest it got, down there, last month, was just 4.4°C – and that was on the 28th. The lowest temperature ever recorded at that height was -5°C (five degrees below freezing) on 9 January 1966.
Rain fell on 13 days last month with a total of 67.6 mm, being 25 mm more than the average for the month. The average March rainfall of every 10-year period since 1978 has seen a steady decrease in amount. The wettest March on record was that of 1925 when a total of 178 mm drenched the islands while the driest was that of 1977 when a few drops of rain produced just 0.4 of a millimetre.
The wind last month was much lighter than the average for March with a mean speed of 8.3 knots (9.5 mph or 15.4 kilometres per hour). Only five other Marches had lighter mean speeds than this year’s. The strongest gust, recorded on the 23rd, was 39 knots (45 mph or 72 kilometres per hour) from a westerly direction. The most frequent direction last month was also the westerly. The strongest gust ever measured in March was 61 knots (70 mph or 113 kilometres per hour) from a northwesterly direction on 2 March 1949.