Less humidity in December and more sunshine

Last month's average air temperature of 14.2°C exceeded the climate norm by 0.3°C. The highest temperature recorded last month was 20°C on the 15th.

The highest recorded for December, from 1947 was on the 5th December 1963 when it reached 24.3°C. The lowest temperature last December was 6.4°C and this was recorded on the night of December 13th.

The coolest December night was on 22nd December1967 with a low of 3.6°C.

The average sea surface temperature was 18.4°C. This is 1.3°C higher than the average value for December. The mean relative humidity last month was 71% which is lower than the 30-year mean climate average of 80%.

Last month, 45.8mm of rainfall was recorded at Malta International Airport. This is less than the climate norm of 112.2mm. The heaviest rainfall was on the 4th with a rate of 24 mm/hr.

It is interesting to note that there were three days when thunderstorm was heard from the Malta Airport MetOffice in Luqa. These were on the 4th, 5th and 9th December. The norm is to have five days of thunderstorm. One day of hail was recorded on the 9^th - no fog was recorded.

Last month there was an average of 6.2 hours of sunshine a day, which is 1 hour 12 minutes more than the December norm. This is the sixth highest mean since 1927.

The brightest days were the 19th and 25th with 9.1 hours of bright sunshine while the dullest was the 16th with only 1.3 hours. A total of 191 hours of sunshine were recorded at the Malta Airport MetOffice.

More information is available on our webpage: www.maltairport.com/weather.