Climate

Malta's weather and climate are strongly influenced by the sea and have a very characteristic Mediterranean flavour, similar to that found in southern Italy. The climate is typically Mediterranean, with hot, dry summers, warm and sporadically wet autumns, and short, cool winters with adequate rainfall. Nearly three-fourths of the total annual rainfall of about 600 millimetres (24 inches) falls between October and March; June, July, and August are normally quite dry.

• Winters are mild with only rare occurrences of cold weather brought by north and northeast winds from central Europe. In fact, daytime winter temperatures almost never fall below 10ºC (50ºF), while night-time winter temperatures never fall below 0ºC (32ºF).
• Summers are warm, dry and very sunny. The weather usually shows signs of warming up in April, heralding in a long spell of hot, dry weather. It rarely rains from April to August. July and August are Malta's hottest months with daytime temperatures usually above 30ºC (86ºF) and quite often also above 35ºC (95ºF).
• Annual rainfall in Malta is rather low - approximately 600mm (24 inches) and the length of the dry season in summer is longer than in southern Italy. Malta has a very sunny climate with an average of five to six hours of sunshine a day in midwinter and over twelve hours a day in mid-summer.