By Karl Azzopardi

Copyright maltatoday

The 2024–2025 precipitation year was the second in a row to produce less rain than the climatic norm of 545.3mm.

In total, 457.8 mm of rain fell over the Maltese Islands between September 2024 and August 2025 – 87.5 mm less than average, almost equivalent to the entire monthly quota for December.

Still, every drop counts, and this is particularly evident when compared to the previous precipitation year (2023–2024), which registered only 249.8 mm of rain, making it the second driest precipitation year on the Meteorological Office’s records. This means that this precipitation year brought 208.0mm more rain than the one preceding it.

A month-by-month breakdown shows that eight months of the year were drier than average, while February, March, May and August were wetter.

The two months that balanced out the year’s rainfall deficit the most were March (81.0 mm; 41.3 mm above quota) and May (36.6 mm; 26.4 mm above quota).

Although June and July were the driest months, with no measurable rainfall at all, October 2024 recorded the most significant rain deficit as just 4.2mm of rain were received, falling 73.4mm short of the monthly quota.

The meteorological winter proved to be the wettest season, with a total of 201mm of rain measured.

Spring (March–May 2025) brought 121.2 mm, nearly equalling autumn (September–November 2024), which registered 124.8 mm. As expected, summer was the driest season. All 10.8 mm of rain measured fell in August, as the so called ‘għerejjex ta’ Santa Marija’ arrived right on time.

The wettest day of the precipitation year was 25 March, when 34.4mm of rain fell across the Islands in less than 24 hours.

Among the other stations, Msida recorded the highest total rainfall at 450.4mm, whereas Xewkija registered the least, with 324.0mm.