October was twice as cloudy and stormy than the average in previous years, the Malta International Airport's meteorological office said on Saturday. 

While not more than five thundery days are usually expected in October, the first half of the month alone rattled the island with five stormy days, increasing to 11 days by the end of October.

Despite this, the warm weather persisted throughout the month rising to a high of 29.3°C on the first day of the month and falling to a low of 15.9°C on October 8.

Temperatures were generally warmer than the climate norm, with the mean maximum and minimum temperatures exceeding the monthly average by 0.5°C and 1°C respectively, the office said in a statement on Saturday.

The spells of stormy weather produced a total of 94mm of rain throughout the month, exceeding the climate norm by almost 20mm. A wetter-than-expected October was capped off with 24.6 mm of rainfall dousing the islands on the 29th of October, making the day the wettest one of the month, the MET office said. 

But sunny skies still remained a regular fixture on the weather forecast, with October’s daily sunlight hours averaging at 6.8 hours. A total of 212.1 sunshine hours were measured throughout the month.