New Year’s Eve saw the temperature in Malta drop to 2.8°C, the lowest December night temperature ever recorded on the islands, according to the Meteorological Office.

This coincided with a rare form of precipitation, as snow pellets were reported in various parts of the islands on December 30 and 31.

However, the coldest night ever recorded remains that of January 29, 1981, when the temperature dropped to 1.4°C.

Although the average air temperature for December was 14.9°C, 0.6°C higher than the norm, December 31 also brought the second coldest December day as temperatures dropped to 7.7°C, only one degree higher than that recorded in 1923.

The highest temperature recorded last month was 22.9°C on December 1.

In total, 150.3mm of precipitation were recorded, which is considerably higher than the climate norm of 104.8mm. The highest rainfall rate was 26.4mm per hour on December 30.

In total, there were six days of thunderstorms: December 7, 9, 10, 17, 30 and 31. The climate norm for thunderstorms in December is five days. Hail was reported on December 17, 30 and 31. This is higher than the norm of one day with hail in December.

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