Malta Weather in 2003

Meteorologist Mark Vella Gera from MaltaWeather.com reports on the weather events that characterised 2003.

January 2003 began wet and windy on New Year's Day but was followed by a rather dry 2 weeks. Most of the month's rainfall in fact came in the last week of the month. January 2003 began quite warm but became progressively colder. On the whole, we can say that January 2003 was slightly warmer than average because the minimum temperatures were 1.0°C above average. On the 11th there was a rare tornado which brought down some trees and caused some minor damage at Zejtun and Zabbar.

The mean monthly temperature was 13.8°C which is 0.5°C above the average for the mean temperature for January. The highest temperature was 20.1°C on the 3rd - this was 0.4°C above average, while the lowest was 6.7°C on the 16th - this was 1.0°C above average. The rainfall for December was 99.9mm which is 2% above the average rainfall for January. There were 9 days of thunderstorms, which is a record for January since records began in 1985. There were also 3 days of hail.

Strong winds wreaked havoc in the south of Malta on the 12th January 2003, snapping trees like matchsticks, toppling walls and wrenching electricity poles, although no one was injured.

The most visible damage was 10 trees along 25th November Avenue, Zejtun, some of which are over 40 years old. "They were not uprooted, which is what you would expect, but literally snapped off. One of the trees is around 30 cm in diameter and it was broken off at road level. It is heartbreaking to see these old trees ruined." One driver managed to swerve out of the way of a branch just in time, when he saw it snap off and get swept into the middle of the road in front of him."

There were other damaged areas: the aluminium internal door of Herald Printing Press was wrenched out of shape, smashing the glass and trapping employees inside until the door could be forced open. Electricity poles were toppled. A high wall under construction on the roof of Alex Mercieca Bathrooms collapsed, and the wall of Montebello Auto Dealer also fell. The Civil Protection Department said that the funnel cloud also damaged trees on the Ghaxaq bypass, near the swings in Marsascala and near Ghar Dalam in Birzebbuga. One tree fell onto a car.

This bad weather was the result of low pressure over Tunisia, which worked its way towards the Ionian Sea, bringing thunderstorms. The funnel cloud, a whirlwind, was the result of the combination of the cold front and winds which reached Force 7 - a moderate gale on the Beaufort Scale.

February 2003 was an extremely cold month - no wonder we were shivering all over! The mean monthly temperature was 10.8°C, 3.0°C less than last month's mean temperature and 2.3°C below the average for February.

The cold affected the maximum temperatures mostly as the mean monthly maximum temperature for February 2003 of 13.4°C was 2.9°C below average! This made February 2003 the coldest February ever since records at Balzan began in 1987.

At Nadur, the maximum temperature never exceeded 15.0°C during February. At Balzan it did so on only two occasions. At Balzan the highest maximum temperature throughout February 2003 was only of 15.8°C. This is 4.2°C below average and was also a record low ever for February.

This cold snap was caused by the continued dominance of a vast high pressure system centred over the Eastern European and Western Russia region. Air, in an anticyclone, or high pressure system, circulates in a clockwise direction. Thus, a very cold current has been directed along the Eastern flank of this anticyclone towards the Eastern and Central Mediterranean for the past month. That, in part, explains why we had such a prolonged spell of cold weather.

There was also more rain than usual throughout this month as 124.0mm of rain fell at Balzan. This is almost double the normal amount of rainfall expected in February. There were also 20 days of rainfall and 6 days with thunderstorms in February 2003. These were also both records.

Where cold weather is concerned, March continued where February left off. February broke several cold temperature records, and not to be outdone, March broke the mean maximum temperature record, which was the coldest since records started being taken both at the Balzan Weather Station and the Nadur Weather Observatory. In fact, the mean monthly maximum of only 16.3°C was 1.7°C below the average for this month.

The weather situation over Europe remained ‘stuck’ in that for most of March a large anticyclone was positioned over Northern Europe. This enabled a cold North-easterly current to continue to dominate our weather situation. The climax of this state of affairs was reached on the 15th and 16th March when strong North-easterly winds, reaching gale force at times, accompanied by incessant moderate to heavy rain, gave us 28 hours of continuous rain. Many places in the Maltese Islands recorded up to twice the mean rainfall for March in one single day.

The maximum temperature recorded on the 16th March 2003 was of only 10oC, and that happened at around 1am. This was the lowest temperature recorded in 2003, but not the coldest March maximum temperature. The temperature this day hovered between 7 and 8oC throughout most of the day, with the minimum of around 7oC-8oC being recorded at 1pm. The wind chill temperature was even lower due to the rather strong NE wind. The wind chill is defined as the cooling effect felt due to the loss of body heat, caused by the strength of the wind. This wind chill temperature was -5.0oC at 12.30pm at Nadur.

Rainfall totals accumulated across the Maltese Islands for the 24 hour period starting Saturday at 1pm were between 30mm and 56mm. The mean March rainfall in Malta is only of around 37mm.

The meteorological situation which caused more rain to fall over the Maltese Islands in one day than the March rainfall average was caused by a strong high pressure system centred over Northern Europe which directed a very cold air current from Russia towards the SW. Upon arriving over the Central Mediterranean, this frigid air mass clashed with relatively warm air present there and over Northern Africa, creating very unstable conditions.

More temperature records were broken in April when the lowest maximum temperature ever for April was recorded on the 8th of the month with a daily maximum of only 13.4°C. Likewise, the coldest solar radiation maximum temperature ever for April was recorded on the 17th with 22.5°C. Otherwise, overall, April 2003 was just slightly cooler than average with the mean monthly temperature of 16.2°C being 0.4°C below average.

However, the days were still cooler this month too, as opposed to the temperatures at night which were quite warm for April. In fact, the mean monthly maximum temperature of 19.3°C was 0.9°C below average, while the mean monthly minimum temperature of 13.1°C was 0.2°C above average. The monthly rainfall was 17.2mm was 60% of the average rainfall for April. There were 5 days of rain and 2 days of thunderstorms, both being exactly the average for the month of April.

May 2003 was mostly dry and warm with rain falling on only 2 days of the month. However, on the 28th May, 31.4mm of rain fell in around 3 hours, thus breaking the record for May of the highest amount of rain in 24 hours since 1985, when rainfall records began. This heavy rainfall was due to thunderstorms forming because of opposing upper air currents meeting over the central Mediterranean in a very unstable atmosphere.

May 2003 was quite warm with the mean temperature 0.6°C above average. The monthly maximum temperature was 25.1°C and the mean monthly minimum temperature was 16.8°C. The highest temperature was on the 8th May with 28.3°C, which was however 2.4°C below average. The lowest temperature was on the 2nd May with 13.9°C, which was 1.6°C above average.

June 2003 will go down in the record books as the warmest June at Balzan since temperature records began in 1987, but also the wettest June at Balzan since rainfall records began in 1985. The average mean temperature was 26.5°C, almost 2 degrees above average. The mean monthly maximum temperature was 31.0°C (2.1 degrees above average), while the mean minimum monthly temperature was 22.0°C (1.8 degrees above average).

The highest temperature was of 38.5°C on the last day of the month. This was not the highest ever for June, but the highest minimum temperature of 28.1°C (also on the last day of the month) was the warmest ever for June since records began at Balzan in 1987. The high temperatures in the last week of June can be attributed to the central Mediterranean getting warmer and warmer due to warm winds blowing off the north African coast.

However, June 2003 was also the wettest month at Balzan since rainfall records began in 1985. There were 2 days of heavy thundery rain showers, on the 9th and on the 20th June, with the latter producing 16.5mm of rainfall in just 20 minutes during a severe thunderstorm. The total rainfall for June 2003 was 28.9mm, well above the average of just 2.6mm!

This day’s heavy rainfall was caused by a severe thunderstorm from Sicily together with other local thunderstorms forming over most of Malta. Earlier on in the afternoon there were heavy rain showers and thunderstorms just in the south of Malta. However, there was hardly any rain in Gozo.

July 2003 was dry and very hot - in fact, July 2003 was the hottest July since records began at Balzan in 1987. The mean monthly temperature was of 29.3°C, which was 0.3°C higher than the previous record of 1988. July 2003 had the second hottest mean monthly maximum temperature (33.9°C) and the warmest mean monthly minimum temperature of 24.7°C (0.9°C warmer than the previous record of 1988).

It was also the first July where the daily maximum temperatures did not fall below 30.0°C. This highest temperature recorded this month was 38.5°C on the 17th with the lowest temperature going down to 21.9°C on the 9th. We also had an earthquake on the 7th July measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale, which was enough for most people to feel, although one must note that the weather and earthquakes are unrelated. As expected there was no rain recorded this month.

August 2003 was as hot as July 2003, although August 2003 broke no records. The mean monthly temperature was also 29.3°C, which makes it 1.5°C above average. This means that August 2003 was the second hottest August since records began at Balzan in 1987.

The hottest August was in 1999 when the mean monthly temperature was 29.5°C, just slightly warmer than August 2003.

The mean monthly maximum temperature was 33.8°C (1.7°C above average), while the mean monthly minimum temperature was 24.7°C (1.2°C above average). The highest temperature was 37.1°C on the 19th, while the coolest night was on the 2nd with a temperature of 21.7°C. Again this month was characterised by light and variable winds which kept temperatures above average for the fourth consecutive month. There was some unstable weather with a few thunderstorms or rain showers in some areas at the beginning of the month, but otherwise the weather was sunny and hot.

September 2003, with a total rainfall of 390.3mm, will go down in the records not only as the wettest September since records began in 1985 at Balzan, but also as the wettest month ever. Also, 15th September 2003 will go down as the wettest day ever since records began in 1985. There was 226.3mm of rain that day at Balzan. This September also broke the record for the highest number of days with thunderstorms ever in any month - 13 in all - just amazing!

The mean monthly maximum temperature was 28.1°C (0.7°C below average), while the mean monthly minimum temperature was 21.5°C (exact average). The highest temperature was 35.3°C on the 2nd, while the coolest night was on the 15th with a temperature of 16.9°C. There were 11 days with rain and 13 days with thunderstorms.

In contrast to the previous month, October 2003 at Balzan was warmer and drier than average. In fact, the mean monthly temperature of 23.0°C was 0.9°C above average and the monthly rainfall of 41.0mm was only 61% of the normal October rainfall of 69.1mm. However, rainfall in the month of October is notoriously erratic, ranging from 0.8mm for October 2001 to 233.0mm for October 1994.

The mean monthly maximum temperature was 26.1°C (0.6°C above average), while the mean monthly minimum temperature was 19.8°C (1.2°C above average). The highest temperature was 32.3°C on the 3rd, while the coolest night was on the 31st with a temperature of 14.6°C. There were only 7 days of rainfall and just 1 day with thunderstorms. The highest wind gust was 60.5km/h on the 24th.

Similar to the previous month, November 2003 at Balzan continued rather warm and dry, with the mean monthly temperature of 18.4°C being 0.3°C above average. The monthly rainfall of 61.1mm was just 51% of the average November rainfall of 119.4mm. This dryness was caused because fewer low pressure systems passed over the Maltese Islands this November.

The mean monthly maximum temperature was 21.7°C (0.4°C above average), while the mean monthly minimum temperature was 15.1°C (0.2°C above average). The highest temperature was 28.1°C on the 1st, while the coolest night was on the 16th with a temperature of 11.8°C. There were only 14 days of rainfall (mostly light) and 9 day with thunderstorms. This was a record highest number of thunderstorms for November since records began in 1985. The highest wind gust was 72.2km/h on the 26th. This very high wind speed was caused by a very strong downdraft from a cumulonimbus cloud during a thunderstorm.