Last year was fifth warmest in 90 years

With a mean temperature of 19.8 ºC, last year was Malta's fifth warmest since 1923, the Malta International Airport's Met Office said.

The highest temperature this year was 37.5ºC, recorded on July 29th, while the lowest was recorded on March 17th when the temperature dropped to just 5.6ºC.

2013 was also one of the years that saw the most hail.

Overall, the year saw 41 days of thunderstorms, seven days of fog and 15 days of hail. The same amount of hail was recorded in 2005, which was the highest amount recorded at Malta International Airport since 1961.

November was the wettest month with 182.0mm while the driest was July with no rain. Total yearly rainfall was 479.5mm, just below the yearly norm of 553mm. The highest rainfall amount in 24 hours was 28.0mm on the 30th November. Malta's wettest year was 1951 with a total rainfall of 955.6mm while the driest was 1947 with 228.4 mm.

The highest wind gust recorded was 54 knots from the West by North direction that occurred on 15th March. March was the windiest with an average wind speed of 11.6 knots.

The highest gust since 1947 was 72 knots on October 11th, 1982 while the windiest year was 1965 with a mean wind speed of 10.3 knots. With a mean wind speed of 8.8knots, year 2013 compares exactly with the norm.

The brightest month was July with an average of 11.69 hours of bright sunshine while the dullest was December with an average of 5.20 hours. The brightest year was 1961 with a mean of 8.91 hours and the dullest was 1976 with a mean of 7.49 hours.

This year saw an average of 8.4 hours of bright shine a day which is greater than the norm of 8.0 hours.