Roughly as many sunny hours in Zeeland as Barcelona so far this year

During the first six months of they year, the sun shined about as frequently in the province of Zeeland as in the Spanish city of Barcelona, weather website Weer.nl determined. The KNMI weather station in Vlissingen already registered 1,476 hours of sun this year, and there will probably be another 100 hours before the end of this month.

That would set a new record for the Netherlands.

In the rest of the country, 2022 has thus far been the sunniest year on record. On average, the sun shined over the Netherlands a total of 1,377 hours through Friday, over 300 more hours than the average. That equates to 30 percent more than normal, or more than an hour and a half more sunshine per day.

Meanwhile, in the sunny Spanish coastal town, the sun shines an average of 1,550 to 1,600 hours in the first half of a year. In the relatively bleak months of January and February 2022, it looked unlikely for any record to be broken, or for a Dutch region to even come close to comparing with sunny Barcelona. The sun shined in Zeeland for a total of 195 hours, compared to 310 in Spain.

Zeeland made up for the shortfall starting in March. In the spring and beginning of the summer, the Netherlands has had a record amount of sunshine. According to the 30-day forecast, it will also remain quite sunny in the coming month.