A mild winter

The average temperature recorded last month, 15°C, at the Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport was warmer, by almost one degree, than the average for the past 30 years, the Met Office said.

The first ten days of December were quite warm as many would remember, in fact these days were more than three degrees warmer than average, the next ten days were close to the average while the latter part of the month was almost two degrees cooler than normal.

The warmest day was the first day of the month, 21.1°C, and the coolest night was December 29/30 when the temperature plummeted to 6°C.

The warmest December day since records started in 1947 was December 5, 1963, with a high of 24°C, while the coldest December night on record was that of December 22, 1967, when a low of 3.6°C was reached.

The Met Office also measures the temperature very close to the ground at grass height - the lowest temperature reached last month was one degree above freezing, recorded around dawn on December 30.

The Met Office said 16 days of December were characterised by showery weather and a total of 87.3 mm of rainfall were recorded.

This rainfall amounts to 87 per cent of the December average of the past 57 years. And the heaviest one-day rainfall of 16.8 mm fell on December 10.

The wettest December since records began at the airport was that of 1970 when a total of 302.6 mm of rain were measured - the driest being that of 1974 with just 14.2 mm.

Thunderstorms, last month, were observed on seven separate days, on three of which they were accompanied by hail.

The past six years, with an average of six thunderstorms a month, have seen a significant jump in thundery activity from the previous 50 Decembers when, barring a couple of exceptional months, the average was barely three thunderstorms a month. According to Met Office records, with 14 thunderstorm days, December 1983 was the most active.

The predominant feature of the first days of December was an anticyclone, or ridge of high pressure, extending from eastern Europe and the Black Sea area to the central Mediterranean and a generally low pressure system over north Africa bringing relatively warm air over the Maltese Islands.

However a series of depressions bringing cold and unstable air characterised the latter part of the month. A cold pool of air has been trapped over the central Mediterranean since Christmas Eve producing the wintry weather now being experienced.

The Met Office said December was quite a lively month in terms of the wind at Malta International Airport, when for 31 per cent of the time it was moderate to rather strong. The average speed was 8.8 knots (16 km per hour) and the most frequent direction was southerly.

The highest wind gust reached 41 knots (76 km per hour) from a westerly direction.

On average December had four hours and 36 minutes of sunshine a day - this works out at a total of 10 hours and 54 minutes of sunshine less than an average December. The brightest day was December 23 with eight hours 42 minutes while December 7 and 16 were the dullest when the sun did not even make an appearance.

The office pointed out that since it is also the National Weather Service of Malta one had to point out that its forecasts and warnings and reports were the only official ones.