With a mean temperature of 10.6°C, this February ranks among the coolest five Februarys in the past 82 years, the Meteorological Office at the Malta International Airport said yesterday.

February of 2003, with an average temperature of 10.4°C, was slightly cooler.

Last month's temperature was 1.8°C lower than the mean for February.

On average, the days were 2.5 degrees cooler than usual with the highest temperature reaching just 17.5°C on the 25th and the coolest day being the 2nd, when the mercury only managed to climb to 10.5°C.

The chilliest night was that of the 6th, when the air temperature dipped to 3.9°C - not as cold as the night of February 8, 1956 when the reading fell to 1.7°C, the lowest for February since 1923.

There were thunderstorms on four days last month, one more than the February average.

A total of 82.2 millimetres of rain fell during the month, 20 millimetres more than the average for February. The wettest February in 82 years was that of 1965 with 187.9 millimetres of rain.

It was quite a lively month as regards the wind, according to records kept at Malta International Airport, when for 45 per cent of the time, the wind was moderate to strong.

Malta had an average of six hours and 12 minutes of sunshine a day. The average amount of sunshine a day for February is six hours and 18 minutes, which means that this February had two hours and 48 minutes of sunshine less than an average February.

The brightest day was February 4 with 10 hours and 12 minutes of sunshine while the dullest was February 9, when the sun failed to make an appearance.

The MIA's Meteorological Office is Malta's National Meteorological Service appointed by the government to provide weather services to the community. It has records dating from 1947 kept at the airport and since 1922 for records from Pietá and Valletta.