Children cooling off in St George’s Square in Valletta. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Last year was Malta’s fifth warmest since 1923, but also one of the years that saw most hail, according to the Meteorological Office.

With a mean temperature of 19.8ºC, the highest temperature last year was 37.5ºC, recorded on July 29, while the lowest was recorded on March 17 when the temperature fell to 5.6ºC.

Overall, 2013 saw 41 days of thunderstorms, seven days of fog and 15 days of hail.

The same volume of hail was recorded in 2005, which was the highest amount recorded at Malta International Airport since 1961.

The wettest month of 2013 was November with 182mm of rainfall while the driest was July, which had no rain. The total rainfall for 2013 from January to December was 479.5mm.

The highest temperature last year was 37.5ºC, recorded on July 29

This was below the norm of 553mm yearly. July was also the brightest month, with an average of 11.6 hours of bright sunshine per day while the dullest was December with an average of just 5.20 hours. The brightest year was 1961 with a mean of 8.9 hours and the dullest was 1976 with a mean of 7.4 hours.

The highest wind gust recorded was 54 knots on March 15. The windiest month was March with an average wind speed of 11.6 knots.

The highest gust since 1947 was 72 knots on October 11, 1982.