“If someone tells me that the winter has lasted long enough, I ask which winter he is talking about, because I have absolutely not experienced that,” says weatherman Frank Deboosere. Rarely has the risk of feet becoming clogged with ice has been as small as last winter. February was not soft, but ‘record soft’.
For the first time, no frost was measured in Uccle. The month will end with an unprecedented average temperature of 8.4 degrees Celsius, more than 4 degrees above the normal average temperature. Over the past winter, the average temperature will be 6.3 degrees, good for second place since 1991. Only in 2007 was the winter warmer.
High temperatures are not synonymous with drought and sunshine. Meteorologist Pascal Mormal of the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) shows with exact figures that the winter, which is replaced by meteorological spring on March 1, has rarely been so gloomy. “From December 1 to February 27, we recorded 123 hours and 13 minutes of sunshine in Uccle, while the average is 180 hours and 17 minutes. There has been less sunshine only five times since 1888.” Since 1991 we have even ranked second there. In 1994 the sun shone for ‘only’ 109 hours and 31 minutes.
Winter blues
This also has consequences for our health. According to endocrinologist Chantal Mathieu (UZ Leuven), we build up a vitamin D deficiency every winter. “Our body largely produces vitamin D in the skin on which the sun’s rays fall. If there is no sun, that process stops.” She therefore recommends taking supplements in consultation with a doctor or pharmacist. “Even now it is not too late for this, because in the first weeks of spring the sun is not high enough for our body to produce enough vitamin D. Our skin is also often covered, because it is not yet warm enough.”
According to Mathieu, darkness also has a major impact on our mood. “That has nothing to do with vitamin D, but everything to do with the hormones that convert light in our brains – put very simplistically – into happiness. A winter blues is simply the result of too little light on our retina. Why don’t they all walk around depressed in the north? There is snow on the ground there and that snow reflects the light again.”
Drench
Not only was it gray or dark, it was also soaking wet. “Around 309 millimeters of precipitation fell, making it one of the wettest winters in recorded history,” says Mormal. The wet period actually started in October, resulting in flooding. So it is not abnormal that it feels like too much.
Unfortunately, a gloomy winter does not predict a beautiful spring and a sun-filled summer. A gloomy winter doesn’t actually predict anything. “Otherwise the job of weatherman would be very easy,” laughs weatherman Frank Deboosere. Yet weather forecasters see light at the end of the dark tunnel, literally and figuratively. “The days are lengthening very quickly now,” says Frank Deboosere. “In March we will gain two minutes of daylight every day. That implies that we have a better chance of sunshine.”
“There is spring, there is the sun, almost – but I think it will come soon -”, sang Jan De Wilde in his ‘A cheerful spring song’. And we can believe his text when we look at the weather maps. “During the course of next week there will probably be a first early spring surge with maximum temperatures of 15 degrees and more,” says Deboosere with some longing for good weather.
Mormal ventures a long-term prediction. “If I look at the seasonal forecasts according to the various models, we will have a slightly warmer spring than normal with a normal amount of precipitation for this period of the year.”
