December was the darkest month since 1934

December was the darkest month since 1934

The month of December was exceptionally dark and abnormally rainy in Belgium, the Royal Meteorological Institute, IRM, said on Monday in its climate report for the last month of 2017. In Uccle, the sun only shone for 10 hours and 31 minutes during the entire month, as against 45 hours and 8 minutes in your average December. This was a record for all December months since the period of reference began in 1981. “The preceding record for this period was in 1993 (16 hours and 17 minutes).

“If you go further back in time, up to 1901, it’s only in December 1934 that a shorter sunny period was observed, since at that time only 9 hours and 31 minutes of sun was observed during the month,” the IRM reported.

December also stood out for “a very abnormal abundance of rain falling in a very abnormally high number of days,” the institute noted, reporting that 130.1 mm of rain fell in Uccle (the normal quantity is 81.0 mm) in 26 days (the average is 19.3 days). The highest daily quantity, 22.5 mm, was recorded on the 11th of December.

There was also an exceptionally high number of stormy days in December: 9,much higher than the norm for a December month, which is 3.1 days. However, December’s temperatures were normal, averaging 4.4°C in Uccle, just higher than the norm of 3.9°C. The lowest temperature recorded there was -2.3°C, while the highest, on the 31st of December, was 13.8°C.

Elsewhere in Belgium, the lowest temperature was -9.5°C, recorded on the 3rd of December at Mont-Rigi (Waimes), while the highest was 15.3°C, registered on the 31st of December in Bilzen.


The Brussels Times


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