Warmest January in Netherlands in 300 years

AMSTERDAM: This month has been the warmest January in the Netherlands since temperatures were first measured in 1706, the Dutch meteorological institute KNMI said on Wednesday.   

The average temperature in January was about 7.1 degrees Celsius, 2.8 degrees more than the usual for the month and significantly exceeding a previous record of 6.2 degrees reached in 1921, 1975 and 1983, KNMI said in a statement.   

Last year was the warmest on record in the Netherlands, which the agency had linked to global warming.   

Dutch temperature records are among the oldest in the world. Methodical thermometer-based records began on a more global basis around 1850.   

KNMI officials have said that the 10 warmest years in the Netherlands occurred in the past 18 years, which was in line with rising global temperatures and was a sign of a warming planet.   

The KNMI's climate scenarios envisage more extreme weather such as heat-waves and storms in the Netherlands and northern Europe in the next few decades to 2050.   

Earlier this month, Europe was hit by a severe storm, the worst in years, with hurricane-force winds that cut a swathe from Britain via the Netherlands to Poland and killed about 60 people.