The month of July marked a new historical rain record according to the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI).
Never has it rained as much for a month of July since weather measurements were recorded in Belgium.
In Brussels, 166.5 mm of rain fell (normal: 76.9 mm) during a total of 17 rainy days in July. "This value soundly beats the previous record (133.8 mm in 2000)," the IRM said.
Most of the rain fell between 11-20 July. During this period, 83.0 mm of rainfall was registered. Historically since 1892, the record for the second half of a July month was in 1962 when 98.3 mm fell.
In Brussels, the most rain fell on 15 July, when 58.9 mm was recorded. In the rest of the country, the heaviest rainfall was on 14 July. That day, the RMI recorded over 100 mm of rain, with most registered in Hockai (179 mm) in the Liege province.
Temperatures were also below average during most of July (17.9 °C compared to the average 18.7 °C), only between 17 and 23 July, temperatures were higher than historical average.
In total, RMI registered 24 days of springlike weather (maximum daily temperatures over 20 °C), and only 3 summer days weatherwise (maximum daily temperatures over 25 °C).
The sun shined for a total of 170 hours and 9 minutes (average; 203 hours, 14 minutes). April (198 hours), May (170 hours) and June (201 hours) were all sunnier in Belgium.
