Temperatures in the Netherlands have risen by twice as much as in the rest of the world, weather bureau KNMI says in its annual state-of-the-climate report.

Last year marked the hottest year worldwide with a rise in average temperature of over 1.5° compared with the pre-industrial era, a figure that was deemed critical according to the Paris Climate Agreement. In 2024 the figure for the Netherlands was closer to 3°.

Since 1900, when the average year temperature hovered around the eight or nine-degree mark, temperatures in the Netherlands have been going up, culminating in 2023 and 2024, with an average temperature of 11.8°, the highest ever measured.

The Netherlands is warming up by 0.4° every 10 years, twice as much as the world average, the KNMI said.

All 30 hottest years recorded by the KNMI took place after 1987, in tandem with the worldwide increase in greenhouse gasses.

“The main pattern that we see is that climate change is hitting the Netherlands quite severely and it is already affecting us. The extremes that we are seeing are very worrying,” KNMI director Maarten van Aalst told Trouw.

The record heat in 2024 was caused in particular by the very wet and warm spring with the persistent cloud formation blanketing the country and keeping the heat in, KNMI expert Peter Siegmund told the paper.

Despite the record rise in temperature, there were no extremely hot days or heat waves in 2024.

“You would think that there would have been. But what this shows is that autumn, winter and spring are also getting warmer. The last day on which we measure 20° occurs later with every year that passes. We are experiencing temperatures in January that are normal for February or March,” Siegmund said.

Last year was also a very wet year, in line with the rest of Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean area, the KNMI found.

Climate change does not necessarily mean more rain but it will result in heavier downpours. Such intense and damaging showers occurred on 13 days in 2024, resulting in floods on the A1 motorway when drivers had to climb on top of their cars to escape the rising water.

There will be more extreme rainfall to come in the future Van Aalst said, and roads and other infrastructure will have to be adapted to cope with it. Compared to 50 years ago the average number of extremely wet days stood at five compared to nine in 2024.

Most people will enjoy the warmer weather, Van Aalst said and are looking forward to an early spring. But the biggest danger for the Netherlands is a rise in sea level, boosted by the rapid warming of the poles, putting as much as a third of the country at risk of flooding.