Brussels on Friday 28th July

All times are local - UTC + 2 hours

Bright morning - some sunshine and areas of medium-level cloud. Soon
very warm again. Cu and Cb developed rapidly after midday. A couple
of flashes of lightning with thunder and a light shower around 13.45
but then brighter for a time. Sky overcast and threatening later in
the afternoon. Repeated rumbles of thunder in the distance 16.30 to
17.00.

Several more rumbles of thunder before the onset of heavy rain at
18.00. Torrential downpour for several minutes around 18.20 -
visibility only a few hundred metres and some fierce squalls. Rain
decreased in intensity briefly but what can only be described as a
cloudburst started at 18.30 and continued for 15 to 20 minutes before
dying down again. Rain stopped by 19.00 with cloud breaks and sunny
intervals afterwards. A few rumbles of thunder during the rainstorm.

I left my office around 18.25 and sprinted to the bus stop and shelter
a couple of hundred metres away. I have a bus journey of about 7
minutes to the nearest metro (underground) station which is situated in
an open space with areas of grass and pathways, and bus stops, at the
bottom of a hill below a large carpark and in front of a major
crossroads. Next to the metro station is a storm drain to take excess
rainwater from the sewers when necessary.

My bus drew up by the metro station shortly after the second torrential
rainstorm had started. Water was running ankle deep over the whole
area and cascading down the steps and escalator into the metro station.
The storm drain was overflowing and water was gushing waist-high out
of the manholes. For the next 20 minutes I stood in one of the bus
shelters with several other people. Water from the overflowing storm
drain swirled over our feet and ran in turbulent rivers some 20 cm deep
along the bus bays.

When the rain had eased off I ventured out to try and get home - 30
minutes' walk by the shortest route. The metro station was obviously
flooded and out of action. A vast area around the crossroads was
under water - up to waist deep at the worst spots. People were trying
to push cars out of the carpark of the nearby shopping centre - the
water was nearly up to the windows of some of them. Firemen were
present and one had to go to the aid of two people who had walked into
the water without realising how deep it was. Rush hour traffic was
completely stopped in the surrounding area as the police tried to
divert it away from the floods.

Eventually I got home after taking a long detour to avoid the roads
that were under water. Lots of mud and silt on roads and pavements
and a couple of branches torn off trees by the squalls.

Brussels Uccle 28.6°C - overnight minimum 19.9°C - and 5 mm rain.
Brussels Airport 27.8°C - overnight minimum 18.6°C - and 12 mm.

Graph http://193.190.137.7/~celinair/maps/...ok/metr012.gif

Brussels Airport http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/EBBR.html

OGIMET Monthly summary for Uccle
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q2B345B7D

Colin Youngs
Brussels