Nature suffers from the extreme weather conditions in the Netherlands

Plants and animals are having a hard time at the moment, biologist Arnold van Vliet reports. After several summers with heat waves and drought, this year's situation seemed more favorable for nature. However, that is not the case, Van Vliet emphasizes. "Many people may not have noticed, but we still had the warmest spring ever."

The average temperature this spring was 11.8 degrees, breaking the record from 2007. "Warmer than ever... That means all plants and animals have never experienced this situation before," says the biologist. The wetness in the Netherlands was also extreme. The KNMI announced at the end of May that the spring was one of the wettest ever measured. "As soon as records are broken, that is never good for nature," says Van Vliet. "And certainly not if it is a series of records."

Most precipitation falls in the coastal areas, the Veluwe, the north, and South-East Limburg. It is generally driest on the eastern border, east of Brabant, and in the middle of Limburg. According to Weeronline, the provinces of Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Drenthe seem to be the wettest provinces in the Netherlands.

Climate scientists are not surprised by these weather extremes. In various reports, they warn of heat, drought, and heavy rainfall as a result of climate change. Also worldwide, several heat records were reached last week, breaking the figures for last year.

Still, Van Vliet sees that the Dutch have experienced this as a relatively cold spring and a cold and wet start to the summer. People in the country are clearly disappointed with the weather. On social media such as Instagram and TikTok, they share videos of the rain. In the meantime, insects cannot fly properly because of the rain, and bumblebees have drowned in their nests because they were deep underground. Van Vliet also explains that trees have been standing in water for a long time now, causing the roots to suffocate.

The KNMI called June "quite cool." That is because the temperature is compared to the average of the past 30 years, "precisely years in which climate change has become very visible," admits a spokesperson for the weather institute. That is why the KNMI compares the temperature in other reports with averages from before the Industrial Revolution. "That gives you a completely different picture," says the spokesperson.

Van Vliet advocates that this comparison with the past should always be made. "If you look at the average temperatures of 50 years ago, June was not cool at all. It was actually warmer than normal." He sees that people quickly get used to the higher temperatures. "But for nature, this is still an extreme situation with major consequences."