August was warmer than average especially at night, Meteo Malta said.
It said in a statement that August nights were the warmest ever since temperature records started to be kept at Balzan in 1987. The mean monthly minimum temperature of 24.9°C equalled the previously-held record in 1999 while the mean grass minimum temperature of 21.5°C also broke the record and was the warmest ever for August.
The mean monthly maximum temperature of 32.1°C was only slightly above average with the mean monthly temperature of 28.5°C being warmer than average by 0.8°C.
Last month was in fact the hottest since August 2003.
Despite registering a hotter-than-average August, there were no extremes with the highest temperature 'only' going up to 34.8°C on the 2nd August.
The highest August temperature ever recorded at Balzan was 43.0°C on August 10, 1999. In August, thermometer hit its lowest point at 23.6°C on August 9. This was also a record! The coolest August night since records began was on August 23, 1997 when the temperature hit a low of 18.0°C.
There was only a trace amount of rain measured at Balzan, but other places got more, especially Zabbar on the August 29 with 37.4mm of rain falling during a local thunderstorm which affected mainly the Cottonera area! The light northeasterly sea breeze met the light westerly gradient wind just above this area.
The average wind speed in August reached 8km/h at Zebbug with the highest gust 'only' reaching 42.6km/h from the west on August 11. In fact, August 2009 was very humid with light winds for most of the month. The most frequent wind direction was the southwest.