While it is hard to believe looking at how the month ended, the start of October 2023 was the warmest and driest ever recorded in Belgium.
The Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) reported on Wednesday that the first ten days of October 2023 were the warmest and driest recorded in Belgium for the month of October. This period saw an average temperature of 16.6°C compared to the normal average of 12.5°C, beating the previous record of 16°C set in 1995.
"October began as September ended: with high temperatures for the time of year," the RMI noted on its website. This September was an absolute record month in terms of temperature. "This remained so until 13 October. After that, temperatures hovered around normal."
The final average temperature of October 2023 was 13.6°C, up from the normal average of 11.3°C, but falling just out of the top five warmest October months for the current reference period.
Striking maximum temperatures
Temperatures varied massively in Uccle, with the lowest recorded temperature being 3.2°C (16 October) and the highest 26.5°C (2 October).
The RMI noted that the maximum temperatures were particularly striking. The average maximum temperature for these ten days was 21.9°C, compared to a normal average of 16.3°C.
"The previous record here also dated from 1995 (20.3°C). Remarkable: the absolute record for this parameter (based on measurements from 1892) remains at 1921 with an average maximum temperature of no less than 24.5°C."
The lowest minimum temperature was measured on 16 October in Elsenborn (Bütgenbach) with -3.4°C while the highest temperature was recorded on the 2 October in Kapelle-op-den-Bos with 27.5°C. The first snowfall was recorded on 15 October in the Hautes Fagnes.
From little rain to downpours
The first ten days of October 2023 were also extremely dry. RMI recorded just 0.1 mm of rainfall in Uccle during this period. "This made it the driest first decade of October for the current reference period," RMI pointed out. The previous record dates back to 1991, with 1.9 mm, while the usual recorded amount is 27.7 mm.
However, the following two sets of ten days were each wetter than average, and the number of days with precipitation also continued to increase. During the last ten days, not a day went by without any rainfall being recorded.
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Overall, last month saw more precipitation than normal: 87.2 mm (compared to the normal 67.8 mm). This is still well below the 1998 record (128.7 mm).
Finally, the start of the month also saw the second sunniest ten-day period ever for the current reference period: for the first ten days, the sun shone for 61 hours and 35 minutes in Uccle (double the normal time of 35 hours 49 minutes).
In contrast, between 21 and 31 October, just 12 hours and one minute of sunshine were recorded (down from the normal amount of 33 hours and 42 minutes).
