February was colder, wetter than average, Met Office confirms

February was colder and wetter than the average February for the past 30 years, the Met Office at MIA said this afternoon.

It said February 13th marked the start of the colder part of the month with an average air temperature of around 2C below the normal February mean for the last 30 years. This lower than average temperature persisted till the end of the month.

However, the extreme minimum temperature of 4.3C was not a record. The coldest February on record since 1922 was February 8, 1956 when the extreme minimum temperature fell to 1.7C.

The warmest day last month was the 3rd when the temperature peaked to 19.1°C.

This made last month a cooler one than the record of 26.7oC that was reached on 18th February 1960.

A mean average relative humidity of 74.6% was recorded last February. This value was 4.4% lower than the average February mean since the last 30 years. The most humid February since 1951 was that of 1967, with a value of 86%.

The sea temperature last month was 15.7°C which was slightly warmer than average.

A total of 118.4 mm of rain fell last month at the Malta International Airport - the average rainfall in February for the past 30 years being 58.0 mm. The wettest day was the 23rd of the month. The wettest February on record was that of 1965 with 187.9 mm and the driest was that of 1957 with a total of just 3.5 mm.

Thunder was heard on four days last month. Since 1951, the average number of thundery days for February was three days. The stormiest February months occurred in 1965 and 1971 each with eight days of thunder. Hail was recorded on six days, which was above the average number of days with hail for the month of February.

The average wind speed was 9.5 kts and the most frequent direction was the NorthWest by West. On the 9th, we experienced the strongest gust of the month, 40 knots from the WestNorthWest.

Malta had an average of six hours and 37 minutes of bright sunshine a day. The brightest February was that of 1995 with an average bright sunshine of 8 hours and 23 minutes.