The Met Office has provided some of the weather highlights for October, which eased the Maltese Islands into wetter and cooler weather.

Air temperatures dropped from an average of 25.6°C in September to a mean air temperature of 22.3°C in October.

29.3°C was recorded on the first day of the month and falling to a low of 15.9°C on October 8th. The Met Office said that temperatures were generally warmer than the climate norm, with the mean maximum and minimum temperatures exceeding the monthly average by 0.5°C and 1°C respectively.

October also saw its fair share of dark clouds and stormy weather roll over the Malta and Gozo. While not more than five thundery days are expected during this time of the year, the first half of the month alone rattled the island with five stormy days, increasing to 11 days by the end of October.

There was a total of 94 mm of rain throughout last month, exceeding the climate norm by almost 20 mm. This wetter-than-expected October was capped off with 24.6 mm of rainfall dousing the islands on the 29th of October, making the day the wettest one of the month.

While the islands welcomed lower temperatures and wetter weather, sunny skies remained a regular fixture on the weather forecast, with October’s daily sunlight hours averaging at 6.8 hours.

A total of 212.1 sunshine hours were measured throughout the month, with a lighter cloud cover measuring a daily average of 3.2 oktas being reported.

File photo: Alain Salvary

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