2025 to be one of Belgium's warmest years on record

With temperatures unseasonably warm for the time of year, European weather observatory Copernicus forecasts that 2025 is on course to be the joint-second warmest year in Belgium since records began in 1850, with November the third warmest on record.

The day Copernicus made its observation temperatures were around 13°C in Belgium, even topping 15°C in some places. Copernicus explains this sudden warming to a change in atmospheric circulation.

The record temperature for a December day in Belgium is 15.8°C, while the seasonal average is around 5°C, meaning that Belgium’s temperatures are around 10 degrees above normal.

The recent sudden warming has been due to a change in atmospheric conditions. A low-pressure system over the Atlantic has shifted winds, bringing a warmer, subtropical air mass from North Africa to Western Europe.

This is not a rare phenomenon, as Western Europe is in a transition zone between cold air from the north coming from Canada and Greenland and warm air from the south arriving from Africa. But this year, temperatures are particularly high.

The main consequence of these very mild temperatures is not good news for climate change, as snow in the French Alps and Pyrenees will melt more quickly, Copernicus noted.