The amount of rainfall last month was a record for January since records started being kept 85 years ago, the Met office at MIA said today.

Total rainfall amounted to 246.6mm. The previous January record was 225.6 mm in 1973.

The day with the highest precipitation last January (61.6mm) was January 5.

A particular occurrence was the fine drizzle which occurred on January 13 which reduced visibility to 1000m for a period of 30 minutes, the Met Office said.

Th January rainfall was due to repeated occurrence of low pressure systems which affected the Maltese islands.

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The photo above shows how rainwater washed away a considerable amount of sand at Ramla Bay, Gozo.

The beach, in contrast to most others, does not have a road running parallel to it, and rainwater from the valley between Nadur and Xaghra crosses it and flows into the sea. The event is not rare and the beach replenishes itself.

This year, however, the water streams were so strong that the underlaying clay is clearly visible and large rubble stones are now everywhere.