January produced 42.1mm less rain than the climatic norm and was brighter than usual, the Meteorological Office at Malta Airport said on Thursday.

In a statement, the Met Office said that only 37.3mm of precipitation was measured, with thunderstorms on only two days and only one occurrence of precipitation with hail.

January was also 1.2°C warmer than the norm, registering an average temperature of 14.1°C.

January 18 had a glimpse of summer, with the highest temperature soaring to 24.5°C. But the highest January temperature ever recorded by the Meteorological Office remained that of 25.8°C, in 2021.

January 23 was the coldest day of last month at 6.7°C, though it was well above the record 1.4°C in 1981.

Last month was also brighter than usual, exceeding the climatic norm by 11.5 hours to register 181 hours of sunshine.

Despite the fact that the average January day saw 5.8 hours of sunshine, less than one hour of sunshine was recorded (0.9) on January 11, the month’s gloomiest day.

At 9.0 knots, the average wind strength was in line with the monthly norm of 8.9 knots. The sixth and seventh days of January were the windiest, as gusts reaching 47 knots were measured across both days, the Met Office said.

Carnival 2024 forecast

The Met Office said fine and relatively warm weather is expected to usher in Carnival on Friday. But the weather is expected to become unstable and blustery in the following days, with thundery showers forecast for Sunday. The wind is expected to increase between Friday and Saturday and remain rather strong to strong, varying between Force 5 and 6, for the remaining days.