2004 coolest in 13 years

Last year was the coolest in 13 years, with the coolest month being January, according to an overview of the weather during 2004 by the Meteorological Office at Malta International Airport.

The average temperature last year was 18.9°C.

Rainfall, totalling 461.2 mm, was 101.6 mm less than the average since records began in 1947 when the Met. Office started operating at the airport.

The coolest year since 1947 was 1976, with an average temperature of 17.9°C, while the warmest was 2001, with a mean of 19.9°C, the Met. Office said.

January's mean temperature was 12.2°C. Over the last 57 years, only January of 1953 and February of 1965 were colder, at 9.9°C.

May last year was also the coolest for the past 13 years as well as being the eighth coolest May since records began at the airport.

The lowest temperature recorded last year was 4.4°C on January 23. Since 1947, the lowest temperature ever reached was that of January 29, 1981 when the thermometer plunged to 1.4°C.

The warmest month last year was August, with a mean temperature of 26.7°C, followed closely by July with 26.3°C.

The highest temperature recorded last year was 36°C on July 23 - which does not come anywhere close to the record high of 43.8°C experienced on August 9, 1999.

The Met. Office also keeps a record of the air temperature at grass level and last year's lowest temperature at that height was 0°C, recorded close to dawn on January 31.

The lowest grass height temperature ever reached was -5°C on January 9, 1966.

The wettest year was 1951 with 955.6 mm while 1961, with 274.2 mm, was the driest.

There were 84 rain days last year, November and December having 17 rain days each, the Met. Office said.

According to its records, November 1958 had the highest number of rain days, 25, followed by November 1988, with 23.

The highest rainfall in a 24-hour period was 73.2 mm on November 2/3. The wettest day since 1947 was November 10, 1988, with 162.5 mm.

Rain was observed every month of the year except for July. However, the month with most rainfall was November when, spread over 17 days, 148.6mm of rain were measured.

The Met. Office counted 31 days of thunder, 10 of those in November alone.

On six days, the rain was accompanied by hail and almost half of those were in December, it said.

The sea temperature averaged 20.2°C for the whole year, which is slightly more than half a degree warmer than the 30-year average.

The year with the highest sea temperature was 2001, with a mean of 20.9°C. However, the year with the coolest average sea temperature was 1978 with 18.8°C.

With regard to wind, the monthly average wind speed was 7.4 knots (or 13.7 kilometres per hour), which is about 1.3 knots (or 2.4 kilometres per hour) lighter than the average for the past 30 years.

The highest wind gust was from a westerly direction and reached 42 knots (or 78 kilometres per hour) on January 30.

Very poor visibility associated with fog affected the airport on a total of seven days, three of which were in October. On average, March had the highest number of fog days, 1.2, closely followed by May, with an average of one day of fog.

On average, Malta enjoyed 8.1 hours of sunshine a day, which is slightly less than the average of the past 57 years. The brightest year was 1961, with 8.9 hours of sunshine, and the dullest was 1976 with 7.5 hours of sun a day.

According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the global mean surface temperature in 2004 is expected to be 0.44°C above the annual average of 14°C - a value that ranks 2004 the fourth warmest year in the temperature record since 1861, just behind 2003.

However, 1998 remains the warmest on record when surface temperatures averaged 0.54°C above a 30-year mean.

From a global perspective, the last 10 years, with the exception of 1996, are among the warmest on record. Rainfall in 2004 was above average for the globe and 2004 was the wettest year since 2000. During the Atlantic hurricane season, 15 named tropical storms developed - the average being around 10.