No heat record for Belgium on Sunday

The Met Office has various measuring stations across Belgium now, but the main reference is Ukkel. Taking this into account, no new milestone was set today.

The VRT's weather presenter Frank Deboosere expected that the 1947 record would not be broken and he was right. Clouds drifted in from the south and we didn't have the hottest day ever, nor the hottest day of the day of the year as temperatures didn't climb as high as yesterday. The first showers appeared in West Flanders in the early afternoon.

PS note that the record temperature of 38.8C in 1947 was measured in an open thermometer shelter, whereas now temperatures are recorded in a closed box. Comparing to today's standards, the temperature measured in 1947 would equal 37.4 degrees.

Last night was the second warmest night ever. Temperatures in Ukkel dropped to 23.1C. This is exactly the same temperature as on 23 July 1923 and 2 July 1952. The warmest night ever was on 18 June 2002 when the minimum temperature was 23.9C.

As today is one of the warmest days of the year, it's better to refrain from physical exercise and to drink a lot: 1.5 litres of water per day is the reference. The air quality was not too good, but ozone levels didn't go as high as expected.