Belgium’s cold and rainy summer ‘a myth’

30 August 2005

BRUSSELS – Belgium’s highest weather authority has rubbished reports that the country has suffered a particularly bad summer.

The Royal Meteorological Institute (IRM) said the figures for July and August proved that temperatures, rainfall and sun have been average – or better – for the country and the time of year.

Meteorologist Marc Vandiepenbeeck described the summer as “terribly normal” and dismissed the suggestion that the last two months had been abnormally wet.

“The trouble is people want a climate that isn’t ours,” he said. “They imagine we should have the climate of the Cote d’Azur because it’s summer.

“You should know that in Belgium it rains on average one out of two days in the summer. July and August are the rainiest months of the year in our country, which benefits from a coastal climate, temperate, humid, with cool summers and mild winters.”

He said coastal temperatures, as recorded on 24 August, had averaged 20.6 degrees, compared to the average recorded between 1954 and 2004, of 21.1.

In Uccle in Brussels, temperatures have been around 17.5-17.8 degrees, with the norm being 16.5.

Uccle has seen 570 hours of sunshine for June, July and August, compared to 585 hours of sun last year.

Belgium has on average 48 rainy days during the three months of summer – this year it got 42.

Although August may have seemed especially rainy, the IRM has recorded 70 litres of rain, so far short of the usual 74.4 litres.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news