The Weather

Meteorologist Mark Vella Gera from maltaweather.com reports on the weather events that characterised 2002.

Winter in Malta this year was a rather mixed affair with the warm months of February and March contrasting greatly with the cold month of January. The lowest temperature this winter was of 3.9°C on 7th January 2002, while the hottest winter day was 3rd March 2002 with a high of 27.7°C. The highest rainfall in one day was a meagre 24.3mm on 23rd February 2002 – definitely flooding in low-lying areas was not a problem last winter! While January was a much colder month than average, February and March were warmer than average, although the last week in March was rather cool due to cold winds from northern Europe reaching the central Mediterranean. Continuing the trend shown these past two years, rainfall was below average again this winter.

Despite March ending on a cool note, March was still 1.1°C above average while mean February temperatures at Balzan were also 1.0°C above average. During February and March cold nights were practically non-existent - in fact, the mean minimum temperature for February was the second warmest since records began in 1987!

As mentioned above, January was a cold month with mean temperatures 1.6°C below average - in fact the average mean minimum of 7.9°C broke all records as not only was it the lowest mean minimum temperature for January but also the coldest mean minimum ever recorded for any month at Balzan since records began in 1987! The minimum temperature of 3.9°C on the 7th also broke the records as it was the coldest night ever for January.

Spring was a rather mixed affair with April and June being slightly warmer than average, but May was cooler than average. Mean temperatures in April 2002 were 0.6°C above average while rainfall was 77% of average, again continuing the trend of below average rainfall shown these past 2 years. The highest temperature of 28.5°C on the 29th was the second highest temperature ever recorded at Balzan for April since 1987.

May 2002 was slightly cooler than average with mean temperature of 20.1°C being 0.3°C below average. In fact May 2002 was the 3rd coldest May since records began at Balzan in 1987. However, of interest was the highest maximum of 28.3°C on the 27th which was 2.6°C below average!

June 2002 was warmer than usual at Balzan Malta. In fact, mean June temperatures were 0.7°C above average. The highest maximum temperature for this month was 35.0°C which is 0.5°C above average. The month was also very dry with practically no rainfall at all, although this is quite normal for June.

Summer was generally slightly cooler than average, which was a relief to most as the expected hot summer did not really materialise. July 2002 was however warmer than usual with the mean monthly temperature of 27.0°C being 0.5°C above average at Balzan Malta. Daytime temperatures were practically average while temperatures at night were 0.9°C above average because there were very few calm nights this July. The breeze did not allow the temperature to fall much at night. The highest temperature in July 2002 at Balzan was 38.0°C on the 24th, which was 1.2°C above average. Rainfall was just trace mm but this is normal for July in Malta. However, other places such as Zurrieq and Gozo got 0.2mm of rainfall in isolated showers or middle-level thunderstorms from altocumulus castellanus.

August 2002 was 0.7°C cooler than average, despite having started off with hot temperatures up to 39°C. But the rest of the month was relatively quite cool with day time temperatures around 30°C. These cooler temperatures might not have been noticed on humid days, but there were quite a few days when the wind was moderate and cool from a northwesterly direction. The highest temperature was on August 6th when temperatures soared to 39.6°C. The highest temperature ever experienced in August was reached on August 10th 1999, when it went up to 43.0°C.

September 2002 was a rather cool September. The mean monthly temperature was 24.4°C which is 0.8°C below average. This makes September 2002 the second coolest September since records began at Balzan in 1985. The coolest September was in 1996 with a mean of 24.3°C. There were only 2 days in September 2002 when the maximum temperature rose above 30°C - in fact the highest maximum temperature was only of 30.4°C on the 5th of the month. This was 3.4°C below the average for the month! Rainfall in September 2002 was 23.8mm, which is 42% of the average monthly rainfall of 56.4mm. Of note were the last 5 days of September where the daily maximum was only of around 24°C due to cool Northwesterly winds.

October 2002 continued with the same trend shown these past few months since it was also cooler than average. In fact, the mean monthly temperature of 21.3°C was 0.7°C below average. The highest temperature reached was 28.9°C on the 22nd and the lowest temperature was 13.5°C on the 31st. These were below average as well. Rainfall in October 2002 was 45.4mm, which is 64% of the average monthly rainfall of 70.7mm. Of note were the last 5 days of October, where a copious amount of volcanic ash (from the eruption of Mt Etna) reached the Maltese Islands due to northerly winds. This is not a normal occurrence!

November 2002 finally saw a change in rainfall trends for the past two years or so as it finally began to rain as it should and rain it did! The monthly rainfall of 133.6mm was 9% above average hopefully indicating that our 2-year drought is over! To note was the heavy rainfall on the 6th where 68.4mm of rainfall fell in a few hours at Balzan. However, Marsaxlokk received 215.6mm on that day! There were 16 days of rainfall and 5 days of thunderstorms. Temperatures were slightly warmer than normal with the monthly mean temperature of 18.6°C being 0.5°C above average. The highest temperature reached was 24.2°C on the 15th - this was a good 2.0°C below average. The lowest temperature was 11.4°C on the 7th which was 2.0°C above average. A truly mad month as regards extreme temperatures and rainfall!

NOTE - December data will be made available on 1st January 2003.