The intense heat of the past few days is being followed by cloud, heavy rain and thunderstorms. Central areas of the country have already received a drenching with flooding in some places. The Royal Meteorological Institute (KMI) has issued a Code Yellow warning for heavy rain and thunderstorms that is applicable to the entire country with the exception of East and West Flanders. The 1722 hotline to which non-life-threatening emergencies can be reported is operational.
Thunderstorms and heavy rain in central areas of the country during Tuesday night
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The first thunderstorms were on Tuesday night. KMI had issued a Code Amber weather warning for rain and storms in Limburg and Liège Provinces. Code Yellow was (and indeed still is) in force elsewhere in the country with the exception of East and West Flanders.
In the Ardennes in particular there was a lot of rainfall on Tuesday night. The Code Yellow weather warning will remain in force until 4pm in Hainaut, 5pm in Brussels, Flemish and Walloon Brabant and Antwerp Province, 6pm in Limburg, Namur and Luxembourg provinces and 7pm in Liège Province.
Flooding
KMI says that the storms are moving very slowly and as a result large amounts of rain could fall at some locations within a short space of time. This has already been the case in Brussels and in Antwerp Province. For example, 39mm of rain fell in the Antwerp district of Wilrijk in just 1 hour.
The Fire Service in Willebroek (Antwerp Province) received dozens of calls to deal with weather-related issues. Several streets have been closed due to flooding.
The Fire Service was also called out to deal with flooding in Boom and Puurs-Sint-Amands (both Antwerp Province) Buses on 2 routes through Willebroek and Boom have been diverted due to flooding.
Rainfall record already broken
Although we are not yet halfway through the month, last night’s storms have meant that the rainfall record for the month of August has already been broken. At the KMI weather station in Ukkel (Brussels) there have already been 100mm of rainfall this month. The normal average rainfall at Ukkel in August is 86.5 mm. August 2024 is the 11th consecutive month with above average rainfall.