The climate in the Netherlands

Climate zone: Moderate zone of the northern hemisphere

The climate in the Netherlands widely corresponds to the German weather conditions. It is cold, wet and a few beautiful summer months are also happening. Due to the warmer temperatures the best time for traveling is from June to September. Nearly unattractive for tourists are the cold months from November to March.

› Duration of daylight and sunshine in the Netherlands

Temperature records of the last 70 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1949 to December 2019 was reported by the Maastricht Airp weather station. In July 2019 the record temperature of 39.6 °C was reported here. The hottest summer from July to September, based on all 5 weather stations in the Netherlands below 230 metres altitude, was recorded in 2006 with an average temperature of 18.9 °C. This average temperature will normally be measured every 4 to 6 hours, thus also including the nights. Normally, this value is 16.8 degrees Celsius. The average maximum daily temperature at that time was 23.5 °C.

The coldest day in these 70 years was reported by the weather station Groningen Airp. Here the temperature dropped to -19.5 °C in February 2012. Groningen Airp lies at an altitude of 4 meters above sea level. The coldest winter (January to March) was in 1963 with an average temperature of -1.3 °C. In the Netherlands, it is usual to have about 5.5 degrees more at 4.2 °C for this three-month period.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1991 - 2019

In contrast to single record values, a long-term development cannot simply be brought about by all weather stations in the country. Both the number and the locations are constantly changing. A simply calculated average value would give a falsified result. If several measuring stations in particularly cold mountain or coastal regions are added in one year, the average would already decrease as a result of this alone. If a station fails during the summer or winter months, it does not provide any values and falsifies the average again. The subsequent long-term development was therefore reduced to only 5 measuring points in order to have actually comparable data over as long a period as possible.

In the years 1991 to 2019 there were only these 5 weather stations in the whole country, which reported continuous temperature values. From these weather reports we have created a long-term development that shows the monthly average temperatures. The hottest month in this entire period was Juli 2006 with 21.9 °C. Januar 1997 was the coldest month with an average temperature of -1.1 °C.

The average annual temperature was about 10.1 °C in the years after 1991 and about 11.1 °C in the last years before 2019. So in less than 29 years it has increased by about 0.9 °C. This trend only applies to the selected 5 weather stations in the Netherlands. A considerably more comprehensive evaluation of the global warming has been provided separately.




More detailed information on global warming with a view by continent can also be found on our topic page on climate change.