They say that one of the most talked about subjects is the weather, and this is no different here in Malta. The people either talk about cold it is, which by their standards, is anything below 20c, or how hot it is. There doesn’t seem to be anything in between.
The Meteorological Office at Malta International Airport, which is the main weather office for the Maltese Islands, has recently invested in two new automated weather stations (AWS), and with those installations, it brings the number of weather stations strategically spread across the Maltese Islands up to 10.
The new stations are equipped with instruments and advanced sensors that measure precipitation, temperature, humidity, dew point and wind speed as well as the wind direction. Real time updates of the different weather parameters from all 10 stations are also available to the public through the Malta International Airport website.
The first new automated weather station is in Mosta, a central location in Malta of which previously the Meteorological Office and the public had limited information relating to the weather.
Located in San Lawrenz, Gozo, the second and north western most automated weather station of the network, is intended to provide a better understanding of the sister island’s weather patterns, and is the first station to register weather conditions brought about by the north western winds.
The Meteorological Office have recently produced details of the weather conditions that occurred in Malta in 2023, and this has been reproduced here, with the copyright belonging to Malta International Airport.
“Last year was characterised by weather which was both warmer and drier than the climatic norm, as the Meteorological Office measured 3,020 hours of sunshine, with seven months being brighter than the norm.
Temperatures surpassing the monthly averages were observed throughout the year. Perhaps most notably, July’s sweltering weather led the month to go down in the Meteorological Office’s records as the warmest month since 1922, as the average temperature reached a blistering 29.6°C.
At the peak of a relentless heatwave that spanned 10 days, the mercury soared to 42.7°C, with the Meteorological Office issuing multiple weather warnings for extreme heat as temperatures recordings consistently hovered around the 40°C mark.
The last months of the year followed these weather trends, bringing with them higher than average temperatures. This includes the month of December, which opened the winter season with an average temperature of 15.9°C, exceeding the climatic norm by 1.4 °C.
As the coldest month of 2023, February was the only month whose average temperature dropped below the climatic norm. The 18th day of the month marked the coolest day of the year, recording a temperature drop to 5.3°C. The rest of the months exhibited warmer temperatures, although May and June stood out as exceptions with temperatures closely aligning with climatic norms.
Over the course of the last precipitation year (between September 2022 and August 2023), the Maltese Islands received 544.8 mm of rain, which was in line with the annual average. Almost one-third of the rainfall was recorded in February 2023 when storm Helios hit the islands, making it one of the wettest on record.
In contrast, March was much drier than usual, with only 3 mm of rain measured, which is 36.7 mm less than the monthly average. Despite April and May being wetter than usual, they were not enough to make up for the drought experienced in March, resulting in a much drier than average spring. July was the only month to remain completely dry, with no rainfall registered.
After a dry summer, autumn failed to bring seasonable weather to the Maltese islands. In fact, the amount of rain measured between September and October fell short of the monthly quota, with the latter becoming the driest October on the Meteorological Office’s records. A meagre 0.2 mm of rainfall was measured in October; 77.4 mm less than the climatic norm. This also translated into an absence of the thunderstorms typically associated with weather transitions in October. Out of a total of 21 thunderstorms in 2023, seven of them hit the Maltese islands in the first month of the year.
While 2023 may have been deficient in terms of rainfall and lightning, the same cannot be said for the wind, which exceeded the climatic norm in eight months. April and May emerged as the windiest months, boasting an average wind speed of 10.1 knots. The most potent gust occurred on November 25, originating from the northwest and reaching an impressive speed of 53 knots.”
©2024 Malta International Airport
Other News
I don’t very often get good luck, but recently in the local supermarket, amongst the other items that I bought, were a couple of pie containers for the oven, but it was only when I got home and looked on my till receipt, I saw that I had only been charged for one of them. This was probably because I presented them at the check out, inside each other. I didn’t do that for any sinister reason, but I would have assumed that the check out person would have checked to see how many there were. Should I feel bad about this? I only actually saved myself €5 (£4), but as I’m sure that they still say in the UK, every little helps.
Some Latest Statistics
From 2012 to 2022, the population of Malta grew 28.6% from 421,464 to 542,051. The increase in population has, according to the National Statistics Office, been caused by the increase of foreign people coming to live in Malta.
The share of foreign nationals increased from 5.5% in 2012, 25.3% in 2022.
In 2022, males outnumbered females at 52.5%, compared to 47.5%.
The death rate has remained relatively stable between 2012 and 2022, with an average annual death rate 8 deaths per 1,000 residents. On the other hand, the birth rate has declined from 10 births per 1,000 residents in 2012, to 8 births per 1,000 residents in 2022.
Chapel of Bones
For nearly a hundred years a small church in Malta’s capital of Valletta served as a place of powerful religious devotion, as well as a macabre tourist destination. Known as the Chapel of Bones, the vaulted crypt beneath the church was elaborately decorated with human skulls and bones exhumed from a nearby cemetery in the mid 1800s.
The Nibbia Chapel as it is officially called, was built in the year 1612. Nibbia, a member of the Knights of the Order of St. John (who controlled the island at that time), funded the construction of the Roman Catholic chapel beside a cemetery where deceased patients of the nearby Sacra Infermeria hospital were laid to rest.
When Nibbia died in 1619, he was entombed in a stone sarcophagus within the chapel.
The chapel was dismantled in 1730 to make room for expansion of the hospital. At that time, Nibbia’s tomb was opened, and his corpse was said to appear untouched by death. The church was rebuilt the following year in the Baroque style, and although little remains of the Nibbia Chapel today, the underground crypt is believed to still exist.
Chapel of Bones Today
Underground Valletta
If you visit Malta, there is one trip that I would recommend. That is an underground trip beneath the streets of Valletta, which tells you all about how various tunnels were made beneath the city to protect the residents from sieges etc. I can’t explain it very well, because there is so much history behind it all, and I don’t want to bore you with irrelevant stuff, but here is some information which I think you might be interested in.
When the Knights of St John arrived in Malta in 1530, Valletta didn’t exist.
Pope Pius V sent his military architect, Francesco Laparelli, to design the new city, while Philip II of Spain sent substantial monetary aid. The foundation stone of the city was laid by Grand Master de Valette on 28 March 1566. Laparelli’s assistant was the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, who later oversaw the construction of the city himself after Laparelli’s death in 1570.
For Valletta to function well (in the event of sieges), it needed some sort of good underground system, and this was for many reasons. There had to be enough storage for grain, tunnels linking to other buildings in Valletta, and able to provide water and sewage disposal.
Every house had to have some sort of underground chamber to receive human waste. The chamber was connected through an inclined conduit to a main sewer beneath the street, so the system was completely gravity fed.
As fresh water was precious, it meant that very little was used to flush the sewers, and as a result, years of accumulation resulted in many blockages. When the blockages were eventually unblocked, they reached the edge of the city, and simply poured out into the harbour, which became contaminated.
It was only in the 1780s that street drains and public sewers were refurbished, only to be overhauled in the 19th century since the system had become unsustainable. A flushing system was introduced through a system of tunnels beneath each street, which still made use of the 16th century rock conduits. The new system was completed in 1885 and is still mostly in use today.
In some of the underground rooms, carved crosses and saints are still visible on the walls, while some shelter rooms are decorated with colourful Maltese patterned tiles salvaged from bombed houses in the city.
During the Second World War, thousands spent nights crammed in the underground tunnels, deprived of decent sanitary facilities and sufficient food supplies, but spurred on by the hope that yet another raid would soon be over and that they would manage to get out safely.
A Passageway beneath Valletta
Some More History
Gakkinu Bonanno was born in Valletta in 1831, and was a Fransicican monk. He entered religious life in 1856 as a brother and was named Diego after the Spanish Fransician brother, St Diego of Alcala. He decided to open a home for abandoned girls who were seeking refuge or help. The first house that he opened was in Conspicua, which later moved to Paola, then to Balzan, to Birkirkara and finally to Hamrun, where an Institute was built and officially inauguarated in 1905, after his death.
Diego suffered from several false accusations and was physically attacked on several occasions. However, he was later praised for his humanitarian works. He died in 1902, and a monument was erected to him in Hamrun in 1932.
I’m not sure whether any of the history of things in Malta is of interest, so please let me know. As I have said many times in the past, tell me what you are interested in, otherwise you will just get boring stuff from me.
Hi Adrian,
This is a diverse post! Love the historical parts especially, if you can write more on this I would love it!
Cheers
The weather here is certainly a talking point - have grown flippers in plac e of feet - the rainfall is ridiculous !!!