The impact of climate change is increasingly being felt in the Netherlands and last year was both the warmest and the wettest on record, weather bureau KNMI said in its 2023 roundup on Wednesday.

Official records were first set in the Netherlands in 1901 and are based on events at the De Bilt weather station near Utrecht.

The average temperature in De Bilt last year was 11.8°, breaking the previous record of 11.7° set in 2014 and 2020, the KNMI said. The average temperature was also 2.9° warmer than in the first 30 years of the last century.

The warmest 10 years since records began all date from post-1990 while the ten coldest are all pre-1963.

Rainfall

Last year was also the wettest since 1906 when the KNMI began recording rainfall. In total, an average of 1152 millimetres of rain fell across the country in 2023, smashing the 1998 record of 1109 millimetres. Between 1991 and 2020, the amount of rain averaged 851 centimetres per year.

The KNMI published new climate scenarios last year, showing that rainfall will rise in the winter, autumn and spring but reduce in the summer months. Last year’s heavy rain was caused in part by the high temperature in the northern Atlantic.

Despite the heavy rain over the year, there was actually a water shortage in the early part of the summer, and this is likely to worsen as climate change increases, the KNMI said.

The Dutch government has set a target of a 49% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and a 95% reduction by 2050.