Dutch meteorological institute ranks 2025 among top 10 warmest years since 1901
The Netherlands recorded another exceptionally warm year in 2025, placing it in the top 10 of the warmest years since temperature measurements began in 1901, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) reported Tuesday.
The national weather institute assigns each year a colored line in its “climate stripe” visualization, representing the annual average temperature measured daily in De Bilt, central Netherlands. Cool years are marked in blue, warm years in red. This year’s stripe is dark red.
The 2025 annual average temperature reached 11.4 degrees, slightly lower than 2024 and 2023, both at 11.8 degrees. Despite not breaking the record, the year still ranks among the ten warmest in Dutch history. Seven of the past ten years (2016–2025) also appear in the top 10, reflecting a longer-term warming trend.
Karin van der Wiel, the KNMI researcher who prepares the climate stripes each year, said the visualization “shows fluctuations in weather from year to year. The long-term warming is visible overall: early in the record, cooler blue tones dominate, while deeper reds appear increasingly at the end.”
The Dutch climate stripes align with global warming trends and were inspired by British climate scientist Ed Hawkins, who developed the method to visually present global temperature change.
KNMI said the stripes complement other analyses of climate change in the Netherlands, including its 2023 climate scenarios and recent reports on extreme weather.
