The Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI) is warning of bad weather on Saturday, triggering the activation of the emergency number 1722.
The RMI warned that between 15:00 on Saturday afternoon and later in the evening (20:00), "unstable air" will be brought in from the south which could see a few heavy showers of thunderous nature develop, but will mainly be accompanied by strong wind.
"Gusts of 60 to 80 km/h may occur over the western part of the country. The RMI will issue code yellow in the afternoon for the provinces of East and West Flanders and Hainaut," the agency wrote on its website.
As it has done several times in the past month, the Ministry of Home Affairs has activated the emergency number 1722. For storm and water damage requiring assistance from the fire brigade, citizens can ask for help via the e-counter www.1722.be or call 1722. When making a digital request via 1722, the request lands directly with the fire service.
The purpose of the 1722 e-counter and number 1722 is to avoid overloading the 112 emergency centres and not keep people in mortal danger waiting. As always, people are advised only to call the emergency number 112 for situations that are potentially life-threatening.
South of Sambre and Meuse and in eastern Limburg saw periods of rain or showers that were of a thunderous nature during the morning. By the afternoon, RMI predicts it will largely become dry there with more clearings. In other areas, it will remain dry and cloudy, but during the afternoon the cloudiness increases, with showers mainly over the west and north-west. Maxima will hover between 20 and 27°C.
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Tonight there will still be some local showers, but in many places, it will remain dry. Towards the end of the night, cloud coverage will increase over the west with possibly some light rain. Minima drop to values between 11 and 16°C. The wind will temporarily subside but is expected to pick up again during the night with moderate to fairly strong southwest winds again by morning, with especially strong winds predicted at the sea.
