Last month was the driest May of the past seven years, the Meteorological Office said yesterday. Only 0.4mm of rainfall were recorded at Malta International Airport. This is slightly more than four per cent of the average rainfall for the month – the average being 9.4mm. The wettest May ever, since records began in 1923 by the Meteorological Office, was 1976 with 49.1mm and with just a trace reported on eight other years.
May was a relatively warm month with a mean temperature of 20.5°C – this was one degree warmer than the average and one of the top 10 warmest on record. The warmest May since 1923 was 1945 with a mean temperature of 21.8 °C, while the coolest was that of 1991 with 17.1°C.
The warmest day last month was the 27th, when the thermometer at the Meteorological Office site at Malta International Airport reached 29.9 °C. The warmest May days ever recorded were in 1945 when 34.4°C was reached on both the 22nd and 23rd. On 12 May 1925 and on 10 May 1931, the mercury just managed to climb to 15°C, making those two days the coolest May days on record.
The lowest temperature last month was 13.9°C and this was recorded late in the night on the 1st and the 21st. The coolest May night since 1923 was that of 4 May 1970 with a low of eight degrees Celsius.
The wind speed in May, averaging 8.7 knots (16 kilometres per hour), was as much as would be expected in a typical May. For almost 93% of the time, it was in the light-to-moderate speed bracket while for seven per cent of the time, it was rather strong. The northwest was the most frequent direction and the highest gust last month, recorded on the 6th, reached 33 knots (61 kilometres per hour) from the northwest. The strongest gust ever measured at the airport in May was 53 knots (98 kilometres per hour) and this was on two occasions – 1951 and 1954.
The lowest grass-height temperature last month was 9.3°C on the 21st. The lowest-ever recorded grass-height temperature in May was two degrees Celsius on the 4th of the month in 1970.
It was much sunnier than normal – we had an average of 11 hours and six minutes of sunshine a day, which means a total of 50 hours more sunshine than an average May. The brightest days were the 13th and the 22nd with 13 hours and six minutes of sunshine, while the dullest was the 12th with only three hours and six minutes of sunshine in an otherwise-cloudy day. The Meteorological Office urges the public to take heed of its UV Index forecasts as these are reaching the very dangerous levels of 11 or more and to seek shade between the critical times of 11am and 4pm and to apply adequate sunscreen protection. More information is available on the following website: www.maltairport.com/weather.
The Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport is Malta’s National Meteorological Service appointed by the government of Malta to provide weather services to the community.
It has records for data compiled at the airport from 1947 and from 1922 for data from Pietà and Valletta.
The only official weather forecasts, reports and warnings are those issued by the Malta International Airport Meteorological Office.