Met Office observes wetter-than-usual climate during precipitation year 2022-2023

With 229.6 mm of observed rainfall, the meteorological autumn was the second wettest season of the year, the Met Office stated on Thursday.

November 2022, which added 151.2 mm of rain to the rainfall total of 78.4 mm recorded between September and October, was the biggest contributor to this figure. Numerous rainy days marked the month of November, which had approximately twice as much precipitation as would have been predicted based on the climate norm.

February brought 181.6 mm of rain, making it both the wettest month of the year and one of the wettest Februaries on record. Between February 8 and February 11, when Storm Helios pounded the islands with bad weather and powerful winds that reached speeds of up to 49 knots, the majority of the month's rainfall was recorded.

During the meteorological winter, February contributed 70% of the 258 mm of rainfall recorded, making up for a significantly drier-than-average December (6.4 mm) and a little below-average January (70.0 mm).

The Met Office noted that in sharp contrast to February, just 3.0 mm of rain fell in March, falling 36.7 mm short of the monthly average. Two wetter-than-average months followed the first month of the meteorological spring, as low-pressure systems that remained until May caused multiple instances of unpredictably unstable weather.

By the end of the season, the Met Office had recorded 50.0 mm of rainfall, which resulted in a drier-than-average spring. However, this was not sufficient to counteract March's dryness.

Instability also marked the beginning of the precipitation year's final season, when the Maltese Islands were hit by a thunderstorm five days into June that dropped 1.6 mm of rain. Despite having 3.4 mm of total rainfall, the month of June ended up being one of the seven drier-than-average months of the precipitation year. With July being entirely dry, the three meteorological summer months were all drier than average.

The precipitation year 2022–2023 produced 544.8 mm more rainfall than the climatic average of 543.4 mm, as recorded between September 2022 and August 2023.