The month of July is coming to an end and registering a worrying record, that of being the hottest recorded by the MRI since 1885. Barely 5 mm of rain recorded in Brussels while the average in July is 76.9 mm. The figures are 30 times lower than the exceptional rains of last summer which led to the deadly floods in Wallonia.
The Royal Meteorological Institute specifies that only the month of July 1922 was so dry. The worst was that of 1885, with 2.9 mm of rain. This drought also affects our French neighbors.
For the MRI experts, we are entering into a constant: hot summers will repeat themselves. With the exception of last year, 2018, 2019 and 2020 were extremely dry.
A worrying situation
If we compare the average temperatures over two periods: 1961-1990 / 1991-2020, we see a rise in temperatures in July of 1.6°, which is catastrophic across Belgium, say the experts.
According to Sébastien Doutreloup, climatologist at ULiège, global warming will push temperatures up. The current peaks of 30 to 35° will increase to 35-40°… and even 45° in the not so distant future.
For the head of the weather bureau (Royal Meteorological Institute) and meteorologist David Dehenauw, these extreme weather episodes are signs of global warming. “We can’t say that all summers are going to be dry”, he says on the set of RTL INFO 13H. “But we see that the extremes are multiplying. we can have very dry summers, or very humid, and we will surely still have normal ones. But we must not ignore these signs of global warming which are very present in Belgium.”