Climate change made 2023 the hottest and wettest year in Dutch history: KNMI

The Dutch weather was erratic in 2023. The just published annual report of the KNMI also shows this. It was the hottest year and the wettest year ever recorded. The cause is also clear, the meteorological institute emphasized: climate change. “This means that 2023 fits in with the pattern of recent years,” said director Maarten van Aalst on Wednesday. Yet the institute also saw several surprises.

Until recently, the KNMI always compared the annual temperature with the average temperature over 30 years. That was called the climatic normal - after all, the weather is always different, but if you take 30 years together, it gives a good average. “But now we can no longer actually speak of a climate normal,” said Van Aalst.

Last year, the Netherlands was 1.3 degrees warmer than the climate normal. “But the average has shifted more and more. If we compare the temperature of 2023 with the average of the first 30 years when measurements started in 1901, our country was 2.9 degrees warmer last year than then. That is a really big difference, and you can feel it.”

Van Aalst stressed that the Netherlands still has a big job to prepare for heat and drought, but also for extreme precipitation. And that can be challenging when it is sometimes too dry and other times too wet.

“My worst nightmare is that we experience flooding like we saw in 2021,” said Van Aalst. “There were many deaths in Germany and Belgium, and that is unacceptable.” He said that our country must be better prepared for extreme weather. “We can’t prevent everything.”

He also sees that many countries are more vulnerable than the Netherlands, which can be a problem for trade, for example. “We need to help the whole world adapt to the impacts of climate change.”

The KNMI is further surprised by certain turning points where the world already seems much closer to disaster than previously thought. “We saw that a record amount of ice in Antarctica has melted. Things are already happening there that we did not expect. We have to keep a close eye on this to know what is coming our way.”

To limit global warming, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced rapidly, Van Aalst said. That is also necessary due to the consequences of climate change that can be seen in the Caribbean Netherlands. The KNMI paid extra attention to this in its annual report. “We are extra concerned about this climate area.”