Beginning of Spring: March exceptionally wet and quite gloomy this year

March was exceptionally wet and quite gloomy this year, as Weeronline sums up the month. There was almost twice as much rain as normal and the sun shone on average 30 hours less compared to other years. In addition, the contrast with March 2022 is "very large".

In just under a week, the average rainfall across the country is expected to be just over 100 millimeters. Normally, about 56 millimeters fall in March. Therefore, there is a chance that March 2023 will join the ranks of the rainiest months since measurements began in 1906. The record is held by 1981, when an average of 128 millimeters of precipitation fell in the third month of the year. In 2019, 101 millimeters fell, with the current month possibly ranking fifth for the year if the average rainfall exceeds 100 millimeters.

Apart from the fact that this year's March was exceptionally wet, the sun also showed little. On average, the sun shone for 145 hours during the first month of spring, but this year the total number of sunshine hours was probably around 115, making it the gloomiest March since 2005, when the sun shone for 118 hours. Still, this is not the gloomiest March ever. In 1909 and 1981, the sun shone for only 54 to 56 hours. This is in striking contrast to the amount of sunshine in the Netherlands this month last year. A record 245 hours of sunshine was recorded in March 2022.