Temperatures hit 20.4° making it the warmest March 21 on record

Friday was officially the first warm day of the year in the Netherlands. Weeronline reported that it was 20.4 degrees celsius at the weather station De Bilt at 1:10 p.m. According to the weather bureau, it is also the warmest March 21 since measurements began in 1901.

The previous record for the highest temperature on March 21 came in 1938. Temperatures hit 20.3 degrees celsius on that date. The national record was also broken earlier, Arcen saw temperatures rise to 20.9 degrees, beating the record set in Maastricht in 1927.

Several other places in the country are experiencing temperatures of 20 degrees and higher. Maastricht, and Eindhoven have also hit temperatures of 20 degrees celsius or higher. Warm temperatures had already been forecast for what is the second day of spring.

This is the fifth time that the record for highest temperature on a date has been broken in 2025. February 21, March 6, March 7, and March 8 all either matched or exceeded the highest temperature ever measured on these dates.

The last official warm day, which was also 20 degrees celsius in De Bilt, came on October 17 of last year. The first locally warm day came on March 8. The temperature in Deelen, Gelderland went up to 20 degrees.

The earliest warm day measured came on March 17 in 1961 and on the same date in 1990. The latest date of the first warm day of the year came in 1983. It took until the last day of May for the country to experience its first warm day, according to Weeronline.

In the current climate period, which is from 1995 to 2024, De Bilt recored an average of 97 warm days in a year. This is four more than the period from 1991 to 2010 and the period from 1985 to 2010 had an average of 85 warm days a year. There were 71 days with temperatures rising to 20 degrees and up from 1961 to 1990.

The record for most warm days in a year came in 2018. A total of 132 warm days were counted throughout the year. This years of 2023 and 2003 came second and third with highest number of warm days.

Temperatures are expected to drop during the weekend. Saturday will have temperatures of around 16 degrees celsius with some showers. Sunday is expected to rise to around 17 degrees celsius. The average temperature for the end of March is around 11 degrees celsius, and that is the expectation for the temperatures next week.