February was colder than average, Met Office confirms

Last month was characterised by lower than normal temperatures, the Met Office at MIA said in a review today.

"Between the 16th and 18th of last month, a cold front moved southwards over the Balkans and reached the central Mediterranean. This event was followed by a cold air mass which reached the Maltese islands on the 16th and 17th. This, together with the cooling effect of nocturnal long wave radiation, caused an extreme minimum temperature of 5.2C as recorded at Malta International Airport on February 18th.

"While this temperature was considered lower than normal for the same time of year, this low temperature was not the coldest ever recorded by the Meteorological Office. In fact colder temperatures for February were recorded for all the preceeding 5 years: i.e. 4.7, 5.0, 3.9, 3.8, 4.9C were recorded in February of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 respectively.”

The Meteorological Office said it also keeps a record of the temperature at grass height level. Last month’s lowest temperature at that height was also recorded on the 18th and reached The warmest day last month was the 28th when the temperature peaked at 18.3°C. This made last month cooler than the average by a degree, centigrade. The warmest February days on record were those of 1960, when a temperature of 26.7C was reached. A higher than average relative humidity of 80% was recorded last February. This value was 2% higher than the average from the historical values. The most humid February since 1951 was that of 1967, with a value of 86%.

The sea temperature last month was 15.5°C which was well within the average for the month of February. A total of 62.2 mm of rain fell last month at the airport - the average rainfall in February being 60.4 mm. The wettest day was the 11th of the month. The wettest February on record was that of 1965 with 187.9 mm and the driest was that of 1957 with a total of just 3.5 mm. Thunder was heard on 4 days last month. Since 1951, the average number of thundery days for February is 3. The stormiest February months occurred in 1965 and 1971 each with 8 days of thunder. As for the wind, 86% consisted of light winds whilst the remaining percentage consisted of variable wind. The average wind speed last month was 6 kts and the most frequent direction was the WNW.