With an average of six hours and 30 minutes of bright sunshine a day, last month was the third cloudiest April on record – only the Aprils of 1966 and 1982 were cloudier – despite having been one of the driest, the Meteorological Office said yesterday. The brightest day was the 18th, with 11 hours and 24 minutes of bright sunshine, while there was no sunshine at all on four days – the 3rd 19th, 21st and 24th.

Last month, with only 5.2mm of rainfall, was one of the driest Aprils of the past 84 years. This amount of rain was a good 16 mm below average. The “heaviest” downpour – just 2.6 mm – was measured on the 2nd. The wettest April since 1922 was that of 1994, when 118.4 mm of rain drenched the Maltese Islands.

With a mean temperature of 16.7°C, April was 0.8 of a degree warmer than the average over the last 30 years. April 1998, with a mean temperature of 17.7°C, was the warmest on record – that is, since the Meteorological Office, now forming part of Malta International Airport plc, began observing weather in 1922. The coolest was in 1980 with a mean of 13.9°C.

The warmest day last month was the 23rd, with a high of 23.9°C. The warmest April day on record was the 9th of the month in 1985, when the temperature climbed to 30.7°C.

However, the coolest it got last month was early before dawn on the 1st of the month, when the thermometer dipped to 8.2°C. The coolest April night since records began in 1922 was that of the 9th/10th of 1956, when a chilly 4.4°C was registered.

With a mean wind speed of 8.1 knots (9.3 mph or 15 kilometres per hour), this year April has not lived up to its reputation for being the windiest month of the year. In fact, for 90 per cent of the time the wind at Malta International Airport last month was in the “light to moderate” speed bracket. The most frequent direction was southeasterly, with the strongest gust reaching 34 knots (39 mph or 63 kilometres per hour) from the east-southeast on the 13th of the month. The strongest gust ever recorded in April by the Meteorological Office was 56 knots (64 mph or 104 kilometres per hour) from a northwesterly direction on 15 April 1969.

The Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport, Malta’s national meteorological service, is the provider of weather services to the community. It has records dating from 1947 at the airport and since 1922 in respect of records from Pieta and Valletta. The only official weather forecasts, reports, and warnings are those issued by the Malta International Airport Meteorological Office.

www.maltairport.com/weather