2023 likely tied for warmest year on record in The Netherlands

The temperature this year is expected to average 11.7 degrees Celsius, tying the record for the warmest year ever measured in the Netherlands. The average temperature was also just as warm in 2014 and 2020, reports weather website Weeronline. Normally in the country, the average is 10.6 degrees all year round.

The 2023 calendar year will therefore wind up in shared first place on the list of the warmest years, with nearly all of the top ten spots having been recorded in this century. Only 1999 is the odd one out, in shared tenth place. In the complete list, the first abnormally warm year before 1980 wound up in 32nd place. That was when the country recorded an average temperature of 10.2 degrees in 1959.

“This is indicative of global warming,” says Weeronline.

The top ranking is mainly due to the amount of warm days of 20 degrees or higher, and relatively few days which brought frost to the country. At the head office of the national meteorological service in De Bilt, Utrecht, the main weather station recorded no fewer than 117 warm days, where normally there would have been 93. There were also fewer days with frost in De Bilt: 41 in total compared to 53 on average. This number is not expected to increase during the remainder of the year.

The year started off with record warm temperatures on a very mild New Year's Day. The month of June also made a major contribution to this year's record heat. The average temperature that month was more than 3 degrees above average. In De Bilt, the average temperature was 19.4 degrees, where 16.2 is normal. This beat the previous June record by no less than 1.2 degrees.

The highest temperature was measured last summer on July 9 in Arcen, Limburg, when the thermometer reached 34.8 degrees. The official national high temperature of the year was recorded a day earlier in De Bilt, when the temperature peaked at 32.2 degrees.

The lowest temperature in De Bilt was measured on the first day of March. On March 1, it was -5.8 degrees in De Bilt. According to Weeronline, December 1 was the coldest day of the year across all weather stations.

National weather records are based on data from the De Bilt weather station. The centrally-located municipality is considered an average point for the entire country.