Bright December caps off year with abundance of rain

Locals and foreigners who chose Malta for their winter destination were treated to a month of sun and relatively warm temperatures in December.

Meteorological records show that the sun shone over Malta for 211.7 hours during last December alone, which the Malta International Airport said was 40 hours more than the norm.

The lowest temperature recorded in 2018 was 5.7°C, which was the temperature on 28 December. Despite this sharp drop, the weather conditions throughout the month remained mild, with an average wind speed of 10.1 knots and only 30.2mm of rainfall. 

2018 highlights

The year ended on an exceptionally bright note but, overall, 2018 saw fewer hours of sunshine than 2017 and it enjoyed an average of 236.2 hours of sunny skies per month.

Despite December being less wet than usual, the islands received 599mm of rainfall in total throughout the year, making 2018 significantly wetter than the previous two years, when 432mm and 324mm of rainfall were measured respectively.

In 2018, 9 February was the second wettest February day recorded since 1923, seeing a total of 117mm of rain.

On the other hand, October not only saw 189mm of rainfall, but also recorded 16 thundery days, making it both the wettest month of the year and the stormiest month ever to be recorded.

Conversely, July was the driest month of last year, and also the hottest, seeing just 0.4mm of rain and 362.6 hours of sunshine.