Belgium's weather service, the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI), issued a code yellow warning for fog on Monday. In some places, visibility may be limited to less than 50 metres.
Monday started with most of northern Belgium covered in a blanket of fog. The RMI noted that dense fog formed north of Sambre and Meuse on Monday morning, which triggered it to issue a code yellow warning in six provinces (Walloon and Flemish Brabant, Antwerp, West Flanders, East Flanders and Limburg) as well as in Wallonia.
"Visibility may be limited to less than 200 metres," the RMI said. "Locally, this could be even less than 50 metres." The code yellow warning will remain in place until 14:00 on Monday.
The fog is expected to clear to sunshine across the country. "Some high cloud veils may still drift in over the west," the RMI said. Temperatures will climb from 5°C to 7°C in the morning, to between 11°C and 15°C. Monday night will see more fog (or a few isolated fog banks). Temperatures will drop to between -2°C and 6°C.
Using foglights
The dense fog did result in traffic jams on the major Flemish traffic axes but these cleared relatively quickly, the Flemish Traffic Centre reported.
At the peak rush hour, just before 08:00, the traffic agency recorded 240 kilometres of traffic jams on Flemish motorways. "A busy morning rush hour, but also not abnormal for November," spokesperson Peter Bruyninckx told Belga News Agency. "We sometimes have peaks up to 280 kilometres."
Especially on the E40 between Ghent and Brussels, visibility was very limited this morning due to the fog. Around 07:00, an accident on the E40 near Ternat towards Brussels.
Credit: Belga/ Nicolas Maeterlinck
An increasing number of cars are equipped with fog lights, allowing drivers to keep a safe distance and avoid accidents. Cars that have them should switch on rear fog lights, these should be switched on when fog limits visibility to less than 100 metres.
However, drivers should make sure to switch them off when the weather clears as rear fog lights are prohibited when visibility is not reduced because they can cause a blinding effect resulting in accidents.
The week ahead
On Tuesday morning, more mist (when the visibility is not reduced to less than 1 kilometre) and fog banks may occur in some places.
Later in the day, clouds will be interspersed with some sunny spells, and temperatures will range between 11 and 15 °C.
Wednesday will also start grey with low clouds, fog and mist, but on this day, the veil of fog "will clear very slowly or maybe not at all", the RMI said.
