Belgium on Friday

Thursday night was exceptionally cold for October - min. temps -3 to -5°C
inland in Flanders and -6°C or below in the Ardennes and at some especially
frost-prone sites.

Coldest places: Kleine Brogel -6.1°C, Spa -6.2°C, Elsenborn -6.3°C, St
Hubert -6.4°C, Rijmenam (east of Brussels) -6.7°C, Brasschaat (just north
of Antwerp) -7.1°C.

On Friday morning an area of precipitation moved into Flanders from the
W - rain on the coast but widespread snow inland.

Snow lasted up to a couple or hours or so in some places and was heavy
enough to give a brief covering locally - as can be seen on this photo
taken at Malderen (about 25 km NW of Brussels) by a member of the Flemish
amateur observers' group http://www.xs4all.be/~yvesgits/1024g.jpg

Snow in October is not rare over the hills of the Ardennes in eastern
Belgium but was last reported in Flanders on 13th October 1975.

Friday was of course also unusually cold - max. temps: Kleine Brogel
2.9°C, Florennes 3.1°C, Charleroi and Maasmechelen 3.5°C, Liège Bierset
and Spa 3.6°C.

Least cold places were towards the coast and in the extreme SE: Ghent and
Virton 6.9°C, Koksijde 8.6°C.

Rainfall was heavy near the coast - Ostend Airport 11 mm and Koksijde 13
mm - but lighter inland where it took the form of snow: Zele (near
Antwerp) 2.1 mm, Ghent 3 mm, Hillegem (near Ghent) 3.5 mm, Brakel (East
Flanders) 5 mm.

Colin Youngs
Brussels