The Weather

The water spout that appeared near Comino during a freak storm in August

Winter 2001 was warm and pleasant, especially at night and with rainfall below average. There were very few cold days and no really cold nights at all. In fact, both December 2000 and January 2001 were about 1.0°C above average.

Spring continued warm. In fact, March was notably much warmer than usual with an average monthly temperature of 2.5°C above average. March 2001 was ever warmer than what April normally is! And the highest maximum temperature and highest minimum temperature ever for March were recorded this year on the 25th March 2001 with a high of 33.5°C and a low of only 21.3°C - a truly summer day, yet in March! Both were records since weather data started being kept at Balzan since 1987. [Listen to an audio interview with Mark Vella Gera about these temperature records in March.] Spring was also drier than average, except May 2001 where the total rainfall of 22.7mm was more than twice the average.

Summer was generally slightly cooler than average, which was a relief to most as the expected hot summer did not really materialise. Of particular mention was the freak summer storm on the 23rd August 2001 in the evening when 32.0mm of rain fell in just 1 hour. Thanks to this freak 1 hour deluge August 2001 became the wettest month since records began in 1985! A waterspout was also seen over Comino prior to this storm (see photo).

Autumn was also slightly warmer than average, especially October 2001 which was 1.4°C above average. This autumn was very dry, especially October 2001 where the rainfall of 0.8mm was only 1% of average! We also had no thunderstorms this October - something that has never happened since records began in 1985! Of particular mention in November were the Force 7 winds from a SSE direction on the 11th. This is because it is highly unusual to have such strong winds from that direction in Malta.

For a more detailed look at weather data for Malta collected in 2001 visit maltaweather.com.