Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1480113
16 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 SEPTEMBER 2022 NEWS ACROSS 1) United voting group 5) La ___ (opera house) 10) Unappetising food 14) Turner of old Hollywood 15) Of musical sound 16) 12-point type l 7) Dec. 24 and 31 18) "Astro Boy" genre 19) Feed store items 20) Household conveniences 23) Apres-ski drink 24) Lift the spirits of 25) Colorless, odourless fuel gas 28) Miner's exit 30) Blacken with fire 31) Athenian lawman 33) "Emergency!" at sea 36) Not bleed? 40) It may have a silver lining? 41) Toy that hums 42) Bridge toll unit 43) Camp Lejeune, e.g. 44) Fire-suppression rake 46) Human moles, e.g. 49) In a vertical direction, nautically 51) In need of a lifeboat 57) Enthusiastic about 58) Borneo ape 59) Sundial 8 60) Order to a broker, some- times 61) Bar Harbor locale 62) Slight advantage 63) Iditarod necessity 64) Immigrants'___ Island 65) Musical symbol DOWN 1) Used a Breathalyzer 2) Kilauea outpouring 3) Billfold bills, often 4) Emergency plastic 5) What a batter gets into 6) Zaire, today 7) Inner personality, to Jung 8) Mongolian monk 9) Guinness who was Obi- Wan 10) Pampered to a fault 11) Thick jungle vine 12) Eight people as a unit 13) Antiquated 21) Electrically charged particle 22) "Die Lorelei" poet Hein- rich 25) Sound on the rebound 26) God with a hammer 27) Alan of "Gilligan's Island" 28) Sax type 29) "How dumb ofme!" 31) 42 regular , e.g. 32) Lennon's bride 33) Medieval German region, to the French 34) Christiania, now 35) Tool building 37) Edict of the Russian tsar 38) Faux ___ 39) Easy task 43) "Look at that!" old-style 44) Combines into one company 45) Truck driver's compart- ment 46) Cheese choice 47) Comic-strip unit 48) Basketwork fiber 49) To no ___ (worthless) 50) Old copper coin of Finland 52) Stadium with a roof 53) Like some testimony 54) Man Friday 55) Fixes, as fights 56) Programme for losers F Solution to last week's crossword The answers to today's crossword will be published in next week's Midweek edition Weather Partly to rather cloudy and locally misty at first, becoming fine Visibility Good, locally moderate at first Wind West to Northwest force 3 TODAY TOMORROW Crossword WEATHER HOT & SUNNY HOT & SUNNY 36 0 / 25 0 35 0 / 26 0 FEELS LIKE 38 0 FEELS LIKE 37 0 THE precipitation year 2021- 2022 had 69 rainy days, which produced 578.8 mm of rainfall, statistics published by the Malta International Airport Met Office show. Following two considerably drier-than-average precipita- tion years, the total amount of rainfall measured between Sep- tember 2021 and August 2022 exceeded the 1991-2020 climate norm by 34.8 mm. Almost 43 per cent of the pre- cipitation year's total rainfall was measured in October. Having drenched the Maltese Islands in 246.2 mm of rainfall, October was the year's wettest month, and went down on the Mete- orological Office's records as the third wettest October since 1922. November, on the other hand, accounted for the wettest day of the precipitation year, with the twenty-fifth day of the month dumping 70.4 mm of rain on the islands as a trough of low pres- sure extended from Algeria to the central Mediterranean be- fore moving eastwards. The first three months of the precipitation year, which make up the meteorological autumn, produced 413.2 mm of rainfall and exceeded the seasonal norm. The meteorological autumn was, in fact, the wettest autumn since 1999 when 473.1 mm of precipi- tation had been measured. This wet start to the precipi- tation year did not trickle into the other seasons, with the me- teorological winter, spring and summer all delivering less rain- fall than their respective climate norms. All three winter months were drier than average, producing a total of 115.8 mm of rainfall, or just under half the rainfall ex- pected during the season. Last winter was the seventh consecu- tive winter to yield a total rainfall amount that fell below the sea- sonal norm. While all three winter months were drier than their respective climate norms, February's paltry 4.0 mm of rainfall put the month among the driest Februaries on the Meteorological Office's re- cords. During the second half of the precipitation year, the Mete- orological Office measured just 49.8 mm of rain with almost half of this amount being collected in March (23.8 mm). The driest three months of the precipita- tion year were June (0.0mm), Ju- ly (0.2 mm) and April (2.0 mm). October 2021 saw 43% of total rainfall recorded for precipitation year Photo: James Bianchi / MaltaToday