Tuesday night is expected to be the coldest January night in three years as temperatures are forecast to drop to a frosty 5°C from a maximum of 11°C, according to the Meteorological Office.

“Usually, the maximum temperature at this time of the year is 15.6°C.  This means that today is expected to be the coldest day of the year so far,” a Met Office spokesperson said.

If the temperature drops to the forecast 5°C,, it would be the lowest for the month as well as the lowest January temperature since 2019, when a minimum 3.7°C was recorded.

January cold snap

The current cold snap is caused by a ridge of high pressure which is currently covering Europe and extending towards the central Mediterranean. This is causing the transfer of cold temperatures from the Balkans towards the central Mediterranean, the spokesperson said.

This month’s lowest minimum temperatures so far were recorded on January 15 at 5.9°C and on January 24 at 6.1°C.

The lowest minimum January temperature ever recorded in Malta - 1.4°C - was registered on January 29, 1981. The most recent lowest minimum for January was recorded on the first day of 2015 at 2.1°C.

So far, this seems to be a colder January that usual.

The norm for the mean air temperature for January based on data from 1981 to 2010 is 12.7°C. So far, the mean air temperature for January 2022 stands at 12.4°C, which means that it is slightly lower than the norm.