Mercury set to start climbing by Sunday or Monday

The cold temperatures affecting the Maltese islands are expected to start creeping back to normal by Sunday or Monday.

The Malta International Airport's Meteorological Office is forecasting a temperature of 15°C on Monday and 16°C on Tuesday.

Although temperatures have been lower than the average of almost 16°C for this time of the year - with yesterday's highest temperature being 13°C and those of Tuesday and Wednesday just over 11°C - this was no way near the extreme temperatures for this time of the year.

Met. Office forecaster Kenneth Chase said that on March 16, 2003 the highest temperature recorded was 8.8°C, making it the coldest day for this time of the year. Both on March 3, 1963 and March 10, 1956 the highest temperature was 9.4°C.

The lowest temperature during the night was recorded last Wednesday, when it dipped to 4.6°C. Early yesterday morning the temperature also dropped considerably - to 5.5°C.

Mr Chase said the average lowest temperature for this time of the year was 9.45°C, which meant that nights were quite cold.

The lowest temperatures, however, were also not extremes. Mr Chase said that on March 3 and 5, 1949 the night temperature had gone down to 2.2°C while on March 11, 1987 it had dropped to 2.7°C.

Last night the temperature was expected to go down to 9°C.

The Met. Office is Malta's national meteorological service and has records dating back to 1947 kept at the airport and since 1922 has records from Pietà and Valletta.

For weather forecast updates visit www.maltairport.com/ weather.