Summer 2021 will probably remain rather disappointing and underwhelming so far, at least from a weather point of view. According to Meteolux's monthly report, the month of July was cooler, less sunny, and much wetter than usual.
Two absolute records for the intensity of rainfall for a month of July were even broken on 14 July, when the country was under an orange alert for heavy rainfall and a red alert for flooding. The torrential rains resulted in two absolute records at the Luxembourg-Findel weather station: the maximum rainfall in 12 hours and 24 hours reached a total of 74.2 l/m² and 79.4 l/m² respectively, thus relegating the previous records set in 2016 (60.4 l/m² and 70.6 l/m²).
But many other values also confirm that the weather in July was disastrous. 188 litres of rain fell per square metre in July. This is 2.6 times more than the average value recorded over the last 30 years (71.5 l/m²). The only time more rain fell per square metre was 21 years ago, in July 2000, when 197.2 l/m² was recorded. July 2021 was thus the second wettest month since records began in 1947.
There were also 15 days of precipitation per month compared to 13.7 on average. July 2021 was also very gloomy with eight days of fog compared to 1.2 on average. 203 hours of sunshine were recorded compared to the 1991-2020 average of 257.
Luckily we did not suffer from intense heat. Temperatures were below normal values with an average of 17.2°C. This is 1.5°C colder than the 30-year average. In the history of Luxembourg's weather station, the coldest July ever recorded was July 1954 with 13.8°C.
July 2021 only had three "summer days" (maximum temperatures ≥ 25 °C), the long-term average for 1991-2021 being 12.8 days. No hot or very hot days were observed.
Finally, the minimum temperature reached was 9.5° against an average of 13.8°.
One can only hope that summer will finally arrive in August. And even if it does not seem to be going well this week, next week looks like it might just have a bit more summer vibes in store.
