June was cool and bright, Met. Office says

June, continuing the cool trend set by May, with an average temperature of 23.1°C was the coolest June since 1996, according to the Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport.

Last month was also a far cry from June last year which, with an average temperature of 26°C, was a good three degrees warmer. However, this is no reason for speculation that this is going to be a cool summer as seasonal predictions from the major climatic model centres do not give a consistent forecast scenario, the Met. Office said.

The highest temperature reached last month was 32.3°C recorded on June 26. The highest June temperature ever recorded since records began in 1947 at Malta International Airport was 40.1°C on June 13, 1997.

On the very first day of the month the thermometer hit its lowest point at 15.6°C. At the same time, very close to the ground, at grass height, the lowest temperature stood at 11°C.

The coolest June night since records began was June 7, 1975 when the temperature hit a low of 12.6°C. Three millimetres of rain were measured at the airport - this is about two millimetres more than the average for the month. The wettest June since 1947 was that of 1968 when 28.2mm of rain was recorded.

The average wind speed last month reached 7.3 knots (eight mph or 13 kilometres per hour) and the highest gust reached 35 knots (40 mph or 65 kilometres per hour) from the west southwest on June 17. The highest gust ever recorded at Malta International Airport in June was 46 knots ( 53 mph or 85 kilometres per hour) on two occasions: one in 1951 from a northwesterly direction and the other in 1962 from an easterly direction.

The most frequent direction was the north northwest.

Malta enjoyed 36 minutes of sunshine a day more than the average for June - the sunniest day being June 19 with 13 hours and 24 minutes and the dullest was June 12 with three hours and 36 minutes of sunshine.

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