100th Anniversary of the Belgium Royal Meteorological Institute

Belgium 2013-06-24

Fellow map stamp collector Julien writes from Europe to inform us of a very interesting and hidden map on the June 26, 2013 issue from Belgium Post which marks the 100th anniversary of the Belgium Royal Meteorological Institute and their forecasting of the weather.  The souvenir sheet shown below contains five stamps. Along the top edge of the sheet are a series of weather condition icons. The foreground of the sheet is covered by a large grassy hill, and in upper center is a single stamp which depicts the institute’s headquarters located in Uccle.  On the right side of the sheet is a researcher with a weather balloon and standing near an instrument station. Arranged along the bottom of the sheet are four evenly sized rectangle stamps depicting a tree with green foliage.  Around the trees, in the background of each stamp, are weather conditions marking each of the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter.  Julien tells us that the hidden map can be found in the shape of the trees represent the outline of Belgium, rotated slightly counter-clockwise.   However, there is another interesting point about this sheet. When you press your finger on each of the trees, or when the temperature is more than 77F (25C)  the foliage of the trees will be transformed to a seasonal color and each tree will have a series of small images representing a common daily forecasts for each season visible in the leaves.  This is shown in the image below.  [ Thanks Julien for alerting us to this very important cartophilatelic issue!  We know of one other map sheet from Iceland (sc1162) issued in 2009 for the International Polar Year which has  a similar heat triggered coating, does anyone know of any others? — web admin ]

Detail of Belgium 2013-06-24 with temperature above 77F (25C)