The Signal de Botrange is the highest point in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, located in the High Fens

High Fens

The High Fens , which were declared a nature reserve in 1957, are an upland area, a plateau region in the province of Liège, in the east of Belgium and nearby parts of Germany, lying between the Ardennes and the Eifel highlands. It is the largest nature reserve or park in Belgium, with an area of ;...

(Hautes Fagnes in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Hoge Venen in Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

), at 694 metres (2,277 ft). It is the top of a broad plateau

Plateau

In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

, and a road crosses the summit, passing an adjacent café

Café

A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

. In 1923, the six-metre-high Baltia

Herman Baltia

Baron Herman Baltia was a Belgian military officer, the son of the Belgian General Charles Baltia and of a German mother....

 tower was built on the summit to allow visitors to reach an altitude of 700 m. A stone tower built in 1934 reaches 718 m.
For several decades a meteorological station was installed at signal Botrange. Since 1999, it was replaced by an automatic station of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium installed on Mount Rigi (scientific station of the High Fens - University of Liege) who is between the signal and the house Botrange Michel.
It experiences stronger winds than at the centre of Belgium, for example. The average and extreme temperatures are usually lower than at any other place in Belgium: the minimum temperature recorded (-25.6 °C) does not, however, exceed the absolute record (-30.1 °C ), observed in the valley of the Lomme, at Rochefort

Rochefort, Belgium

Rochefort is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Namur close to the Ardennes. On January 1, 2006 Rochefort had a total population of 12,038. The total area is 165.27 km² which gives a population density of 73 inhabitants per km²...

 during a temperature inversion phenomenon. An average of three months during the winter during which the average temperature remains below 0 °C. In comparison with the rest of the county, the rainfall is much higher: it reached an annual average of 1450 mm compared with 800 mm in Uccle

Uccle

Uccle or Ukkel is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.Uccle is known for its well-to-do areas, its green spots and its high rental rates.-History:...

. The rainfall is also much more common: there are over 200 days of precipitation per year (against just over 170 in Uccle). Maximum temperatures in summer exceeded only in exceptional heatwave threshold of 30 °C. The number of days of frost is over 130 days per year and the number of days of snowfall exceeds 35. The maximum thickness of snow was seen Feb. 9, 1953 with 115 cm of snow. Jellies and earliest snowfall can be observed in late September, which remains outstanding while the later have been exceptionally observed until mid-March.

At the height of winter the site is used as the start of a number of cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

routes.