Netherlands' 10 hottest years all in this century; 2025 was exceptionally sunny, dry

The weather in 2025 did not break any significant records in the Netherlands, but it fit well into the trend of the steadily warming climate. With 2025 included, the Netherlands’ ten warmest years ever recorded are now all in this century, the meteorological institute KNMI noted in its annual report. 2025 was the second sunniest year on record, and the spring and summer were in the top 5% for drought.

The average temperature at the national weather station in De Bilt was 11.4 degrees Celsius last year, making 2025 the sixth warmest since records began. The year had the highest number of mild days on record, with temperatures rising to 15 degrees or higher on 207 days.

The average summer temperature was 18.5 degrees Celsius. “In the cooler climates of the early 21st century and early 20th century, this temperature only occurred once every twenty and once every thousand years,” the KNMI said. It now occurs once every two years.

In the first quarter of this century, between 2000 and 2025, the Netherlands warmed by an average of one degree. That amounts to 0.4 degrees Celsius per decade - even higher than the highest estimate in the KNMI’s climate scenarios published in 2023. Three years ago, the KMNI predicted a warming of 0.33 to 0.35 degrees Celsius per decade between 2005 and 2025, assuming high greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, global CO2 emissions are still rising. “This means that the Paris Agreement is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve, the climate will continue to change, and new risks are emerging, including in the Netherlands,” the KNMI said.

Global warming now stands at 1.4 degrees Celsius. “If the current temperature trend continues, we will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2029,” the KNMI said. In the Paris Agreement, world leaders promised to do everything in their power to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

The cause of global warming is greenhouse gas emissions, which, globally, reached a record high again in 2025. China remains the largest emitter, but the European Union also had higher CO2 emissions per person than the global average, the kNMI said.

Sunshine

The Netherlands was exceptionally sunny last year, getting 137 watts of sunshine on every square meter of the country. 2025 was the second sunniest year since records began in 1965, just behind 2022 (138 watts). Spring, in particular, was ridiculously sunny, getting almost a quarter more sunshine than usual.

According to the climate models, the country should be getting around 120 watts of sunshine in an average year. Climate scientists don’t know exactly why the country saw so much more sunshine in 2025 and 2022. “We don’t have a good explanation for that yet,” KNMI climate scientist Peter Siegmund told the Volkskrant.

An obvious cause could be less air pollution than anticipated. Fewer clouds form in cleaner air, but the same is true for fog, and there has been no significant decrease there. The warming climate could also be subtly altering weather patterns above Europe, or the weakening Gulf Stream could indirectly be causing more southerly winds. It could also be a coincidence, Siegmund said.

Drought

The downside to all that extra sunshine is increased evaporation, resulting in more drought. Low rainfall also played a role there. Last year, 673 millimeters of rain fell in the Netherlands, compared to an average of 851 millimeters.

Last spring and summer were in the top 5 percent driest years ever recorded in the Netherlands. There were significant differences by location. Zeeland experienced its third driest year ever recorded, after 2022 and 1976, while Groningen was only slightly drier than usual.