Stats reveal that January 2020 was one of the driest on the Maltese Islands SINCE 1923
January 2020 proved to be quite the warm month with plenty of sunshine. The Met Office released some stats that have us pretty shooketh.
“A look at meteorological data for January shows that the first month of the new decade was characterised by more hours of sunshine, warmer temperatures, and less rain than expected at this time of year,” the Met Office said.
“While rain was in short supply, and no thunderstorms were reported, January days were generally sun-drenched.” Boy, don’t we know it! “The month clocked up 179.8 hours of sunshine, surpassing the climatic norm by just over 17 hours.”
The sun shone brightly, and for long hours in January, kicking off the last Monday of the month with 9.5 hours. “Conversely, the 23rd day of the month was the bleakest, with a mere 0.2 hours of sunshine being recorded.”
With such sunshine recorded on our islands, it’s no wonder that temperatures were also above the average. “Averaging at 13.2°C, January’s air temperature was 0.5°C higher than the climate norm. The air temperature for the month ranged between a lowest minimum of 5.1°C and a maximum of 18.8°C reached towards the end of the month.”
And get this! January 2020 was one of the driest since 1923. “Having produced just 15mm of precipitation, last month went down on record as the fifth driest January since 1923. The total measured fell heavily short of the rainfall quota for the month, which stands at 92.9mm of precipitation.”
There was a little twist in all of this, though. “The wettest day of this unseasonably dry month was 12th January, with 5.8mm of rain being measured withing a 24-hour stretch.” Sheesh!