Warmer October
With an average temperature of 22.5°C, October was more than a degree warmer than normal. However, there were six other warmer Octobers, in the last 56 years, that is since the Meteorological Office started keeping records at Luqa. The highest...
With an average temperature of 22.5°C, October was more than a degree warmer than normal. However, there were six other warmer Octobers, in the last 56 years, that is since the Meteorological Office started keeping records at Luqa.
The highest temperature recorded last month was 31.4°C on October 3. The warmest October day ever was that of 1999, on October 27, when the mercury rose to 34.5°C.
Incidentally, the warmest day ever was also in 1999, that of August 9, when the temperature reached 43.8°C.
As in previous months, the nights were also warmer than generally experienced in the past 30 years, by about one degree.
The lowest, 15°C, was reached on the last day of the month. The average minimum temperature last month was 19.3°C.
The average sea temperature was 23.7°C which is half a degree warmer than the October mean.
Last month 37.4 mm of rain fell at Malta's official raingauge, at Malta International Airport. This was only about 46 per cent of the average for the month. Rainfall in the month of October is notoriously erratic, ranging from as low as 10 mm in 1998 to the wettest in 1951 with 476 mm.
As in recent months, the wind speed, 6.3 knots (or 11.7 km per hour or 7.2 mph), was also less than the 30-year average for the month.
On over 87 per cent of the occasions the wind was light or very light, the most frequent direction being the Northwest or Majjistral. The highest wind gust was 42 knots (or 78 km per hour) from a southerly direction, early in the morning of October 18.
A five-day forecast, a detailed and constantly updated three-day forecast for mariners, the UV Index as well Doppler weather radar and satellite infra-red images are available on the Met Office Website.
www.maltairport.com/weather