The Uccle Observation Station registered record-breaking temperatures last month: the monthly average of 21.4 degrees was 3.0 degrees higher than the norm for August ( 18.4 degrees), the Royal Meteorological Institute (IRM) said on Thursday.
The previous record monthly average was 21.2 degrees, set in 1997.
Temperatures at Uccle station exceeded normal values for most of the month, the IRM noted.
The average maximum temperature was 26.8 degrees, another all-time high and way above the norm, which is 23.0.
The average minimum temperature was 15.8 degrees, whereas the norm is 13.9.
Last month, temperatures varied between 9.7 degrees, on 6 August – the only time it fell below 10 degrees in Uccle – and 32.5 degrees, on the 25th.
August also set another type of record: still in Uccle, the maximum temperature was at least 20 degrees every day, without exception. The norm is 23.9 days.
The observation station also recorded 19 days with a maximum temperature of at least 25 degrees (the norm is 8 days) and 8 days above 30 degrees (the norm is 2.1 days).
It was also the second driest August in the current reporting period, the IRM added. Only 17.8 mm of rain fell in Uccle, way below the normal amount, which was 86.5 mm, and the lowest total since 1991, when it was 15.7 mm. No rain was recorded there between 21 and 31 August.
