This year likely to be the wettest on record in the Netherlands

“This year is fast becoming the wettest year since measurements began in 1906,” the KNMI said on Tuesday. The current record stands at 1,109 millimeters of rain in 1998. The meteorological institute expects this year’s rainfall to amount to 1,079 mm. “If December is also wetter than normal, 2023 could well be the wettest year yet.”

The Netherlands has already had four wetter-than-typical periods this year and one exceptionally dry period in June. January, the spring, July-August, and now October-November all had exceptionally more rainfall than expected, the KNMI said.

The current spell of wet weather will last at least through November 28, with the daily chance of precipitation fluctuating from 60 to 90 percent each day, according to the KNMI.

Climate change is making the Dutch summers drier and the winters wetter, but how strong the change is differs from model to model. About half the models show winter precipitation increasing more strongly than the decrease in the summer, and the other half show the opposite, the KNMI said.

The Netherlands is already getting significantly more rain than in the past. A hundred years ago, the country got about 700 millimeters of rain per year. Today, the average rainfall is around 850 mm, an increase of about 20 percent.