The national heatwave has officially ended as the temperatures fell below the 25°C threshold at the Uccle reference point of the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) on Wednesday.
A heatwave requires a series of at least five consecutive days of 25°C or more with at least three days of a minimum of 30°C. This heatwave started on Tuesday 9 August, when the maximum temperature of 27.6°C was measured in Uccle.
The seven days that followed saw temperatures of 30.6, 31.4, 32.1, 31.5, 31.9, 28.6 and 28.1°C, respectively.
"We will not reach 25 degrees in Uccle today, and so yesterday was the last day of the national heatwave that lasted eight days, from 9 to 16 August," said RMI's head of forecasting David Dehenauw on Twitter.
We halen vandaag geen 25 graden meer in Ukkel en dus was gisteren de laatste dag van de landelijke hittegolf die duurde van 9 tem 16/8, 8 dagen dus.
— David Dehenauw (@DDehenauw) August 17, 2022
An eight-day heatwave is not exceptional, Dehenauw said. The longest heatwave in Belgium since 1901 dates from 1947 and lasted 19 days, from 10 to 28 August. That same year, three shorter heatwaves were also recorded.
