April in Malta sees less sun and cooler temperatures

April’s weather in Malta was cooler than the average, bringing more clouds and less sunshine as compared to earlier years, according to a press statement sent to Business Malta by the Malta International Airport (MIA).

April’s mean air temperature stood at 15.9°C, somewhat colder than the norm; 16.1°C, according to MIA’s figures. April’s maximum temperature dropped by 0.7°C as compared to the month’s mean maximum temperature of 19.8°C. Meanwhile, the mean minimum remained almost unchanged, warming by 0.2°C compared to the norm of 12.4°C.

MIA statistics suggest that April’s rain was less than usual, with only 15.4mm of precipitation. Some 39% of this was recorded in the first five days.

The islands saw a total of 240.7 sunny hours in April, some 8 hours less than the monthly average. The brightest day of the month was 28 April with 12.5 hours of sunshine.

Saharan dust covered Maltese skies blocking the sun for the most of the month. This often led to “blood showers”, according to the MIA press release.

The islands also received heavier winds than usual with mean speeds of 10.3 knots (approximately 19 km/h) throughout April; 0.8 knots (1.4 km/h) stronger than the usual.