Quality control and homogenization of the Belgian historical temperature data

Abstract

This paper presents a new dataset of quality controlled and homogenized monthly mean air temperature for Belgium. After in‐depth data quality control, monthly maximum and minimum temperature time series have been homogenized with the HOMER software on the basis of available metadata. Homogenization results are provided for 61 series over the period 1954–2015 and for 16 series starting before 1931 including eight covering the full time period 1880–2015. The new dataset of monthly homogenized series allows to make a robust analysis of the temperature evolution in Belgium at a local scale from 1880 to nowadays. Trends in maximum and minimum temperatures indicate on average a similar and statistically significant warming of about 0.3 °C/decade from 1954 and of about 0.15 °C/decade from 1880 with moderate spatial variations. An abrupt warming is observed at the end of the 1980s, especially in summer and spring seasons.