Monday 5 February: Frost duration 40% lower in center of Ghent compared with surrounding rural region

At the MOCCA weather station of Melle (rural location just outside the city of Ghent) the past winter period resulted in 456 hours of negative temperatures. But the MOCCA station of St Bavo, situated in the city center, registered a total frost duration of only 279 hours which means a reduction of about 40%. Continue reading

Monday 15 May: The importance of good communication

If you had a look during the last days at the realtime maps and graphs of the MOCCA stations, you should have remarked some strange issues. Continue reading

Thursday 20 April: Late frost but not in the city

Spring started very mild with a record high average temperature in Ukkel for March. But during the previous days a northern flow transported cold air (about -5°C at 850 hPa = about 1.5 km height) towards the Benelux... Continue reading

Friday 6 January: Urban heat island during a winter night

Last night the meteorological conditions were ideal for strong cooling: a cold air mass, merely wind and clear conditions. Continue reading

Tuesday 20 December: Last weekend: grey, greyer, greyest

Last days the weather was not really exciting with the grey and foggy weekend as an excellent illustration. Continue reading

Tuesday 22 November: Discussion of a windy Sunday: significantly less wind in the city

After a hesitating start (with a Summerlike September) Autumn now started for real. This was highlighted by the very windy Sunday of 20/11. Let us look back to this day. Continue reading

Tuesday 11 October: First time below 0°C ... in Melle

After a very mild september with even some tropical days, it goes fast now. This morning the first negative temperatures were measured. Continue reading

Wednesday 5 October: Did we have a heatwave in Gent during summer 2016?

Summer is really over now, time to look back. Both in July, August, and September the temperature sometimes peaked at tropical values over 30°C. Continue reading

Tuesday 24 August: Hot end of summer 2016

Up to now summer 2016 did not have many thermal outliers, but this will be compensated for this week. Continue reading

Tuesday 16 August: It keeps on raining in the botanical garden

Due to the different microclimates we can expect quite some differences in the meteorological observations within a city, but sometimes there is more to it than meteorology. Continue reading

Monday 4 July : There we go...

More than 1 year ago the preparations for this project have been started. Many discussions, site visits and software problems later we are now ready to start the campaign. Continue reading