Those who do not mind some cold and rain on Christmas Day, the better to get into the spirit of it, are likely to be disappointed tomorrow: a few clouds is the closest to wintry weather they will be getting.

With the highest temperature lurking at just under 20°C and the lowest at 14°C, Christmas Day is this year again forecast to be partly cloudy with no rain.

For the past seven years, Christmas Day has been either partly cloudy, mostly cloudy or cloudy, and the last time Malta got some thunder at least was in 2006.

That year, it had hailed on Christmas Eve, when 13.4 millimetres of rain were recorded. But the temperature the following day remained above 10°C.

Three years later, not a single millimetre of rain was recorded on Christmas Day, according to the Malta Airport Met Office.

Since 2005 the weather has been generally good.

But with the Mediterranean climate orientated towards mild winters, this is hardly some freak weather phenomenon.

“The Mediterranean has unsettled weather during winter,” a Met Office spokesman said.

“This means that we experience different weather scenarios such as windy days combined with northwesterly winds which are rather cold, sunny days, wet days and even thunderstorms.”

And since temperatures are never in the minuses, Malta never gets any snow, much to the disappointment of Christmas purists.

Those who were around on Christmas Day 1986 would have at least felt the cold: the temperature dropped as low as 3.7°C.

By contrast, it reached 23.6°C in 2009. The wettest Christmas day was recorded in 1982 with 16.3 millimetres of rain.

This year the temperature will – rather boringly for some – be roughly in between.