The Night of Flanders was heading towards a record edition with almost 12,000 sports enthusiasts. The organization had done everything in its power to provide sufficient water and sufficient cooling, but it was not the heat, but the predicted thunderstorms that caused the cancellation.
Gusts of wind and hail
Mayor Kristof Audenaert: “The municipal safety cell has sought advice from Meteosupport. During the heaviest showers predicted between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., watch out for a lot of precipitation in a short time, very heavy wind gusts (90 to 120 km/hour) and large hailstones. The weather is not stable, so there is no insight into where the thunder cell will develop.”