It rained on 21 days last month. That is the highest number for a month of July in 35 years, and one day more than 2011. The month was gloomy and wet, but the values are not actually that exceptional. "Even the number of rainy days is not exceptional. July 2023 will not even make it into the top-20 of July months with the highest number of rainy days," says weatherman David Dehenauw of the RMI.
We may think that July 2023 was rather an autumnal month, but the recorded values are not that extreme. The average temperature, at 18.4 degrees Celsius, was quite normal. The long-term average for the Met Office at Ukkel is 18.7 degrees.
Up to Sunday 113.2 millimetres of precipitation was measured. In an average July 76.9 millimetres of rainfall is recorded.
The previous extremely wet July, two years ago, was even wetter with over 166 millimetres of rainfall in Ukkel. Even higher levels were recorded in 1942 that holds the record: 196.5 millimetres, says Dehenauw.
The number of rainy days was remarkably high: 21, compared to 14.3 normally. It is the highest number in 35 years. In 1988, we experienced 23 rainy days. The previous outlier was in 2011, when we faced 20 rainy days. "The absolute record was set in 1936. Then it rained for no fewer than 29 days in July," says Dehenauw. So almost every day. A rain day is a day on which at least 1 millimetre of precipitation falls.
July 2023 contrasts sharply with July last year, when we barely counted 5 rainy days. But July 2023 is not that exceptional. The past month does not even make the top-20 on the list with the highest number of rainy days in July, Dehenauw underlines. It is true that we have become used to a different state of affairs in recent years, with many dry summers.
The values for 2023 are also in sharp contrast to last year, when we experienced a bone-dry July with barely five rainy days. Barely 5.2 millimetres of precipitation fell in Ukkel in July 2022.
Unsurprisingly, the sun did not shine for as many hours as usual: just over 185 hours up to and including Sunday, compared to over 203 hours normally.
Poor weather to continue all week
The poor weather is expected to continue for at least another week. But in the second week of August, a weather improvement is expected, with some drier weather and slightly higher temperatures.
