The climate of the Maltese Islands has always been a magnet that draws both visitors and the numerous ex-pats who have made the islands their own place in the sun. Malta is often viewed as having one of the top climates in the world. Indeed the Baltimore based International Living publishing house goes one step further and states unequivocally that it is the best climate in the world. We tend to agree!
Malta and Gozo have a typical Mediterranean climate with a hot dry summer, a warm but sometimes wet autumn, a short cool winter that is rarely very cold, and a blissful, if occasionally, windy spring.
Malta has more daylight hours than most of Europe and consequently it also enjoys one of the
highest numbers of sunshine hours on the continent -
an impressive average of 3,000 sunny hours per year. These vary according to season - from a whopping 12 hours of daily sunshine in July, down to a shorter, but very welcome, average of 5 hours daily in December. The number of totally sunless days is impressively small - averaging less than ten days annually. No doubt such plentiful light and sun must contribute to the Maltese normally placing high up on life satisfaction surveys conducted by various agencies worldwide.
Winters are a mild affair in Malta, with only rare occurrences of cold spells brought by cold winds from northern Europe and Russia. Daytime winter temperatures rarely fall below 10C (50F) and night-time temperature below 0C (32F) are virtually unknown. Snow doesn’t occur (once in fifty years) while hail is a rare phenomenon.
Though visitor numbers tend to peak in the hot summer months, attracted by the sun and the warm seas, Malta and Gozo are, in reality, a year round destination weather-wise, with the spring and autumn months generally warm enough to afford some swimming. The average annual sea temperature is 20C (68F) - the warmest in Europe - and this average is exceeded in the six months from June to November - with an average high of 26C (79F) in August and only going down to 15C (59F) from January to April, making the islands a year round diving destination.
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