Last month was Malta’s hottest September since 1924, as temperatures soared to beyond 34°C. The average air temperature was 26.3°C, which is 1.6°C more than normal for the month of September, the Malta Airport Met Office said today

The hottest day coincided with Malta’s 50th anniversary of Independence, September 21st, were the mercury rose to 34.6°C. The coolest day was September 30th, when temperatures fell to 19.2°C.

Only a total of 0.2 mm of rain was measured at Luqa airport last month, heavily below the norm of 58.1 mm. These figures rank September 2014 as the second warmest and sixth driest in Malta since records began in 1922.

The hottest ever September was in 1924 when a sweltering 38.9°C was reached on two days. On record, the wettest Maltese September was that of 1997, receiving a total of 266.9 mm of rain. Meanwhile, the driest was that of 1943, which saw no rain at all.

Last month, Malta also enjoyed a total of 240 hours of bright sunshine. This averaged to eight hours per day. The sunniest days were September 1st and September 6th, each enjoying a total of 11.3 hours of sunshine. One hour of sunshine was recorded on the dullest day, September 25th.

Tourists and beach goers continued to enjoy warmer than normal sea temperatures at 26.2°C throughout the month of September. This is warmer than the norm of 25.5°C.

The wind’s most frequent direction was the West Northwest and had a mean speed of 7.6 knots. This was more than the typical speed of 7.1 knots. However, for 76 per cent of the time, the wind speed was within the light wind speed bracket of between 1 to 10 knots.

Meanwhile, the strongest gust was measured at 28 knots from the West Northwest direction on the 2nd day of the month.

Photograph: Alain Salvary

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