Hail, thunder and lightning
 

Brussels on Saturday 12 February

Rain and wind until late morning. Dry but with fast-moving low cloud until
mid-afternoon. Abrupt heavy downpour with hail 15.30 to 15.45 CET - flash
of lightning and peal of thunder towards the end. Some breaks in the cloud
subsequently. Further heavy shower around 22.00 CET.

Very mild night and morning. Strong SW to WSW wind veered W to WNW in the
afternoon and decreased somewhat. Strong W wind in the late evening.
Gust of 42 kn reported at Brussels Airport and 47 kn at Uccle.

Brussels Airport 12.7°C - overnight minimum reported 10.1°C - and 10 mm
rain.
Brussels Uccle overnight minimum 7.4°C.

I think the Airport minimum is wrong as the temperature was rising on Friday
evening and didn't reach 10°C until midnight.

Graph http://www.irceline.be/cgi-bin/metevol.ksh?r012 shows the sharp
fall in temperature in the mid-afternoon rain.

Brussels Airport http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/EBBR.html shows
fall in dew point from the same time and wind veering to WNW.

I was caught in the heavy rain and hail half way between home and the metro
(underground) station and spent the next hour walking round with very
uncomfortable wet trousers.

Colin Youngs
Brussels