No official warm day before May for first time since 1997

The Netherlands hasn’t had an official warm day - when thermometers hit 20 degrees Celsius in De Bilt - yet this year and the forecast doesn’t see it happening soon. “This makes it the first time this century that we will not have an official warm day before the month of May,” Weeronline reported.

The last time warm weather made the Netherlands wait so long was in 1997 when the first official warm day happened on May 2. On average, temperatures hit 20 degrees at the national weather station in De Bilt around April 13, so we’re already two weeks past that.

Typically, there are around four warm days in April. Last year’s first warm day was on April 12. The last time April did not have a single warm day was in 2021, but then De Bilt had already recorded the first warm day of the year on March 30th.

“Partly due to the changeable weather of the past few weeks, the experience of this spring is quite disappointing for many people,” Weeronline said. “Yet in the past, we often had to wait a long time for the first official warm day.” In this century, the first 20 degrees only happened in the last week of April in 2000, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012.

When temperatures will climb to 20 degrees this year is still very uncertain. According to Weeronline, there is about a 30 percent chance of the first warm day of the year happening from May 4.