Brisk, dry start to winter after an extremely wet autumn

Winter in the Netherlands is off to a cold and dry start, quite the contrast to autumn’s predominantly wet and warmer-than-usual weather. The weekend will see maximums just above freezing, but with lots of room for sunshine between the clouds and only a significant chance of snow and showers on Sunday, according to the KNMI.

With the minimum dropping below zero every night until at least Thursday and maximums around 2 or 3 degrees, the first week of winter will be colder than typical. The average temperatures for early December in the 1991 to 2020 climate period were minimums of 2.4 degrees Celsius and maximums of 7.1 degrees.

That is a stark change to autumn’s mild weather. Over the past three months, the average temperature was 12.8 degrees, far warmer than the typical 10.9 degrees. The season got more sunshine than average, 378 hours compared to 349.

Autumn also got twice as much rain as usual. The national weather station at De Bilt got 444 mm of precipitation in the past three months, compared to the long-term average of 222 mm. Bergen op Zee even got 570 mm of rain during the past season.

Whether the Netherlands will have a white Christmas this year is still anyone’s guess. The KNMI sees a 70 percent chance that the weather will turn milder with more rain from next weekend and only a 30 percent chance that the current icy weather will continue. But Christmas is still over three weeks away, so there’s lots of time for things to change.