In January 2013, the monthly average wind speed measured at Malta Airport was 11.3 knots, which is higher than the monthly climate average of 10.2 knots. This is the second highest mean wind speed since 1990, Malta International Airpot said in a statement.

The most frequent wind direction this month was from the West by North direction which was prevalent for 96 hours. For 51% of the time the wind speed was greater than 10 knots.

The highest wind gust for this month was 50 knots from the West Northwest direction and occurred on the 18th January. Since 1947 the strongest recorded wind gust for January at Malta Airport were on 16th 1951, 16th 1978 and the 2nd in 1994 when maximum gusts of 61 knots were recorded.

For the first month of the year, the Malta Airport MetOffice issued seven strong wind warnings and two Gale wind warnings which were broadcast to the civil and marine authorities as well as to the general public.

A total of 50.2 mm of rain fell this month in Luqa, which is lower than the climate January norm of 89 mm. The wettest day for January was the 25th with a total of 11.2 mm. The highest total January rainfall on record occurred in 2009 with a total of 248.2 mm, while the driest one was that of 1983 with just 8.5 mm.

With a mean temperature of 13.3°C, January 2012 was warmer than the climate norm of 12.4°C. The highest temperature recorded last month was 18.1°C on the 20th and the lowest temperature was 6.7°C on the 18th.

The lowest recoded grass minimum temperature for this month was 4.1°C on the night of the 27/28th January. A mean relative humidity of 75% was recorded last January, which is less than the climate norm of 79%.

The mean sea temperature last month was 16.2°C which is 1°C warmer than average.

Thunder was heard from Malta Airport on six days: (15th, 16th, 18th, 23rd, 25th and 26th) while hail was observed on four days (15th, 16th, 18th and 24th). These are well above the climate norm of three days with thunderstorms and one day with hail.

Last month we had an average of 6.1 hours of sunshine a day, which is 1 hour more than the January norm. The brightest day was the 8th with 9.6 hours of bright sunshine while the dullest was the 25th with only 1.1 hours. A total of 190 hours of sunshine were recorded this January at Malta Airport.