Record unseasonal November warmth and drought as mercury hits 29.1°C high

As the mercury hit 29.1°C on the first day of November, a new record for the highest temperature for the month was set.

Cooler temperatures were experienced as November came to a close, with the month’s lowest temperature dipping to 11.7°C on the twenty-sixth day.

However, the unseasonal temperatures that characterised the first half contributed to a mean air temperature of 19.9°C, surpassing the climate norm by 5.4°C.

 The first half of November was also marked by a shortage of rain, with the Maltese islands receiving just 0.6 mm of precipitation during this time. The latter part of the month partly compensated for this shortage with 53.0 mm of rainfall, of which half was measured in just one day.

The Meteorological Office had advised the public of moderate to heavy rainfall through a yellow weather warning on November 22, with islands’ thirst was quenched by the first widespread rainfall event since May, which produced 26.4 mm of precipitation.

Even though wet weather punctuated the final days of November, the month was significantly drier than the climate norm of 84.8 mm of precipitation. During November, the Meteorological Office recorded three thundery days and a day with hail.

Having clocked just over 36 hours of sunshine more than expected at this time of year and registered a lower monthly mean cloud cover of 3.2 oktas, November was much sunnier than the norm. Amid days that enjoyed an average of 6.7 hours of sunshine, November 22 was particularly gloomy with just 0.6 sunshine hours recorded.

November 25 saw the Meteorological Office issue an orange weather warning for strong winds, at times reaching gale force. On that day, the month’s strongest wind gust of 53 knots blowing from the Northwest by West was measured.