August slightly cooler

The mean temperature for August was 26.4°C, which was slightly cooler, by almost half a degree, than the 30-year average (1971-2000), Saviour Porter, chief meteorological officer at Malta International Airport said yesterday.

One of the reasons for this was the predominance of a cooler northwesterly wind.

The highest temperature reached was 38.8°C on Monday, August 5, five degrees short of the highest ever reached at Luqa (43.8°C on August 9, 1999).

Monday, August 5, was also extremely dry with the relative humidity reading down to nine per cent, due to air descending from a high altitude to the surface of the earth, which warms and dries out the air at the same time.

August nights were slightly warmer than average, by half a degree - the mean for August was 22.6°C.

The lowest temperature reached in August was 15.9°C in 1972.

A total of 17.2mm of rain fell in the last four days of August, which is quite a significant amount as the average for the past 30 years is only 5.3mm for August.

The wettest August on record was in 1964, when 155.5mm of rain were recorded.