| Malta's weather and climate are strongly
influenced by the sea and have a very characteristic Mediterranean
flavour, similar to that found in southern Italy or southern
Greece. The climate is typically Mediterranean, with hot, dry
summers, warm and sporadically wet autumns, and short, cool
winters with adequate rainfall. Nearly three-fourths of the
total annual rainfall of about 600 millimeters (24 inches) falls
between October and March; June, July, and August are normally
quite dry. |
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The temperature is very stable, the annual mean being 18ºC
(64ºF) and the monthly averages ranging from 12º
C (54ºF) to 31ºC (88ºF). Winds are strong and
frequent; the most common are the cool northwesterly (majjistral),
the dry northeasterly (grigal), and the hot humid southeasterly
(xlokk,). The relative humidity is consistently high and rarely
falls below 40%.
Winters are mild with only rare occurrences
of cold weather brought by north and northeast winds from
central Europe. In fact, daytime winter temperatures almost
never fall below 10ºC (50ºF), while night-time winter
temperatures never fall below 0ºC (32ºF). Hence,
snow never falls in Malta. Sometimes it gets rather windy
for up to 3 days with strong gale force winds blowing either
from the northwest (Malta's most common wind) or from the
northeast bringing days of miserable stormy weather. Most
of Malta's rainfall falls during autumn and winter, mostly
from thunderstorms which make up most of the rainfall from
September to December. It is usually mild in Malta during
the winter, with plenty of sunshine, too, with daytime temperatures
usually 15ºC (59ºF) or above and sometimes also
around 20ºC (68ºF).
Summers are warm, dry and very sunny. The weather usually
shows signs of warming up in April, heralding in a long spell
of hot, dry weather. It rarely rains from April to August.
July and August are Malta's hottest months with daytime temperatures
usually above 30ºC (86ºF) and quite often also above
35ºC (95ºF). The highest ever was in August 1999
when the temperature once went up to 44ºC (111ºF)
in the shade at Luqa Airport. However, since humidity is rather
high in Malta (due to the fact that Malta is an island) summer
temperatures can feel quite irritating, thereby making it
quite often unbearable to stay out in the sun. This is especially
so in August and September, when a high humidity can make
it quite unbearable at night. However, daytime temperatures
in summer are usually mitigated by cooling sea breezes, especially
along the coast, but in spring and autumn a very hot and dry
wind from Africa occasionally brings unpleasantly high temperatures.
This wind is called the sirocco, which also affects Italy
and Greece, but in Malta it is usually rather drier because
of the short sea track from the African coast.
Annual rainfall in Malta is rather low - approximately 600mm
(24 inches) and the length of the dry season in summer is
longer than in southern Italy. Malta has a very sunny climate
with an average of five to six hours of sunshine a day in
midwinter and over twelve hours a day in mid-summer.
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