Aside from the start of the meteorological autumn, being the 1st of September, last Sunday also marked the start of a new season of rain, as rain data is collected starting September and ending August annually.

If it felt like the weather in the past year has been particularly dry, you haven’t been imagining! Maltese Islands Weather has shared statistics that show between September 2023 and August 2024, an average of 262.0mm of rain fell across the Maltese Islands – less than half the usual amount!

Although several of the recent years have been below average in terms of rainfall, the only year coming close to this past one was between 2015 and 2016, during which 265.0mm of rain was recorded.

The amount of rainfall varies across the different localities in Malta and Gozo, sometimes despite being close to each other. For instance, Xewkija and Victoria are two adjacent villages in Gozo, yet differ in amount of rainfall in the past year by over 100mm! In fact, Victoria was the locality with the highest amount of rainfall in all of Malta and Gozo, with 295.9mm in total.

Have you been missing the rain in the past year?