Belgium records hottest week in history

BRUSSELS

Belgium has experienced the hottest week in its meteorological history, the country’s most famous weather reporter, David Dehenauw, announced Thursday.

It has been “the warmest week since 1883” with an average maximum temperature of 33.5 °C (92.3 Fahrenheit) registered between Aug. 6 and 12 by the royal observatory station in Uccle, the head of forecast in the Royal Meteorological Institute explained in a post on Twitter.

The new record beats with 0.1 °C the previous weekly maximum temperature from 1976.

Along with the rest of Western Europe, Belgium has been experiencing a heatwave since Aug. 4. Until recently, Belgium has been known for its oceanic climate with cool summers.

Including the current one, only 41 heatwaves have struck the country since 1901, out of which 10 occurred in the past decade due to the climate change.

However, the current heatwave may not pass the record of the longest one from 2018 which lasted 26 days because a temperature drop with storms is expected in the coming days.