The month of February tends to be one of the coldest months in Malta, which generally happens when polar air masses affect more frequently southern Europe and the Mediterranean. Between 16 and 18 February, a cold front moved southwards over the Balkans and reached the central Mediterranean. This event was followed by a cold air mass which reached the Maltese islands on 16 and 17 February.
This, together with the cooling effect of nocturnal long wave radiation, caused an extreme minimum temperature of 5.2°C as recorded at Malta International Airport on 18 February. While this temperature is considered lower than normal for the same time of year, this low temperature was not the coldest ever recorded by the Meteorological Office.
In fact colder temperatures for February were recorded for all the preceding five years: i.e. 4.7, 5, 3.9, 3.8, 4.9°C were recorded in February of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 respectively.
The Meteorological Office also keeps a record of the temperature at grass height level.
Last month’s lowest temperature at that height was also recorded on 18 February and reached a value of 0.5°C.
The Meteorological Office has a network of six automatic weather stations where temperatures are measured but only the instruments located at the Malta International Airport can be quoted as conforming to international meteorological standards with respect to instrument quality standards, calibration and siting required to measure the air temperature.
It is possible to measure temperatures different than those measured at Luqa, but one must bear in mind the siting of the thermometer.
Nearby vegetation, city buildings and variations in the terrain are just a few factors that can potentially affect the mercury level of the thermometer at particular localities and thus read off different temperature values.
The warmest day last month was the 28th when the temperature peaked to 18.3°C. This made last month a bit cooler than average by 1°C.
The warmest February days on record were those of 1960, when a temperature of 26.7°C was reached.
A higher than average relative humidity of 80% was recorded last February.
This value is two per cent higher than the average from the historical values.
The most humid February since 1951 was that of 1967, with a value of 86%.
The sea temperature last month was 15.5°C which is well within the average for the month of February.
A total of 62.2mm of rain fell last month at the airport – the average rainfall in February being 60.4mm. The wettest day was the 11th of the month. The wettest February on record was that of 1965 with 187.9mm and the driest was that of 1957 with a total of just 3.5mm.
Thunder was heard on four days last month. Since 1951, the average number of thundery days for February is three. The stormiest February months occurred in 1965 and 1971 each with eight days of thunder.
Concerning the wind, 86 per cent consisted of light winds while the remaining percentage consisted of variable wind.
The average wind speed was 6kts and the most frequent direction was the WNW. On the 8th, we experienced the strongest gust of the month, 36 knots from the northeast by north.
We had an average of six hours and 12 minutes of bright sunshine a day.
The sunniest February was that of 1995 with an average bright sunshine of eight hours and 23 minutes.
The Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport is Malta’s National Weather Service, accredited to the World Meteorological Organisation and only the forecasts it issues and the records kept there are the official ones.
Constantly updated information direct from seven automatic weather stations distributed around Malta and Gozo together with information from the airport weather station, a five-day forecast, a detailed and constantly updated three-day forecast for mariners, the UV index, and satellite infra red images are available on our website www.maltairport.com/weather.