"mittens" schreef in bericht
...

On Jan 25, 5:58 pm, Colin Youngs
wrote:
Brussels on Friday 25th January

Bright and quite sunny morning but increasingly dense and extensive
high cloud. Some Ac and eventully Sc as well from early afternoon
and the Sc cover was almost complete by the end of the afternoon.
Fairly mild again - moderate SW to WSW wind.

Colin, your weather commentary is similar to those who live in
England, although your nighttime readings are often colder. Is this a
fair assessment? If not, how so? I realize that the climate of
Belgium, though inland, is significantly influenced by the Gulf
Stream.
______________

Bob,

Differences between the climate of Brussels and inland parts of southern
England are not very great.

Brussels is about 110 km or 65 miles inland from the Belgian coast and the
intervening land is mostly flat. The influence of the sea is thus very
strong in the typical westerly flow from the Atlantic that characterises the
weather in this part of Europe.

The elevation of the land rises from west to east across Belgium. The east
of the country has a much harsher winter climate than Brussels and snow lies
often and for lengthy periods over the Ardennes hills in a typical winter.

I am British but have lived in Brussels since 1984. I work as a translator
for the European Union. During the time I have been here, the most
noticeable feature of the weather has been the lack of extremes.

During the winter, Brussels is further away than most of the UK from the
typical path of low pressure areas which pass to the north of Scotland.
The frontal system that gives hours of heavy rain and howling winds in the
west of Scotland may reach Brussels 24 hours later with a moderate breeze
and half an hour of drizzle.

In settled summer weather, Brussels is often a bit warmer than southern
England. August average max. here is 22.5°C and July 22.3°C - a degree or
so higher than that part of the UK, I think.

In cold winter weather when the airflow is over continental Europe from the
east - a rarity in recent winters - Brussels is rather colder than southern
England because of the tempering effect of the sea on such air before it
reaches Britain. In that situation it may be -2°C in Brussels but +2°C in
London, for example.

This January has been exceptionally mild.

Average January max. temp. in Brussels is 5.6°C and average min. temp. is
0.7°C.

Since 4th the max. temp. has exceeded the long-term average every day -
often by 5 or 6 degrees. Every night since 5th has been milder than
average.
http://www.ogimet.com/cgi-bin/gsynre...min=0&ndays=30

A typical January has 6 days of snowfall - I have yet to see a single
snowflake this year. A typical January sees frost on about half the nights
in the month - this year there have been just 2 frosty nights so far.

January 2007 was the mildest January on the Brussels record that goes back
to 1833. January 2008 is not far behind.

Colin Youngs
Brussels