Dry, sunny Dutch winter much warmer than previous years

This winter was much milder, sunnier and with fewer rainfalls than previous winters, meteorological institute KNMI said on Tuesday, the last day of meteorological winter. December and February were particularly mild. The KNMI considers January cold due to a few days with mild to moderate frost, NU.nl reports.

The average temperatures for December, January and February was 3.8 degrees. The average for the period 1981 to 2010 is 3.4 degrees. 

The lowest temperature of this winter was -10.8 degrees and was measured in Twente on January 23rd. The highest temperature was 17 degrees and it was measured in Beek, Limburg on February 15th. 

De Bilt had five consecutive days of frost, which led to a few days of skating on natural ice in several places in the Netherlands. 

There was an average of 142 millimeters of rain this winter, compared to the usual average of 208 millimeters. The small amounts of precipitation caused traffic problems due to icy roads on a number of days, especially between January 1st and 7th. 

It snowed during the night of 12th to 13th January, with some places getting up to 10 centimeters of snow. 

There was an abundance of sunshine this winter - a total of 230 hours of winter sunshine. That is about 34 hours more than normal.