April was colder and wetter

April this year was colder than average, the Meteorological Office said.

It said that the average temperature this month was 15.3°C, with the warmest day being the 25th, when the Met Office’s thermometre reached 21.9°C.

The warmest April days ever recorded in Malta were in 1985 when the highest temperature of 30.7°C was reached on the 9th.

The lowest minimum temperature last month was 9.7°C and this was recorded on April 3 and 4. The coolest April night ever recorded in Malta was that the 10th in 1956 with a low of 4.4°C.

The Met Office said that 40mm of rain fell last month, nearly double the 23.9mm mean. The average relative humidity was 82 percent, five percent higher than the average measured since 1951.

Wind speed averaged 9.1 knots or 16.9km per hour with the westnorthwest being the most frequent direction. The highest gust - 35 knots, was recorded on the 12th and 13th. The strongest gust ever measured at the airport in April was 56 knots (103.7km per hour) on the 15th of 1969.

The lowest grass-height temperature was 6°C on the 3rd. That ever recorded was -0.5°C on the 3rd in 1965.

The average sea surface temperature was 16.2°C, slightly higher than the average value for April since 1978.

The Met Office said that last month was less sunny than normal with a total of 227.7 hours of sunshine -19.3 hours less average. The brightest day was the 28th with eight hours, the dullest were the 12th and 13th with no sunshine at all.

There were thunderstorms on April 1 and 23 and on April 17 fog was observed reducing the visibility at MIA to less than 100m.