With an average temperature of 18.5 °C, it was the fourth warmest summer since our measurements began in 1901. Although there were two heatwaves, it was never persistently very hot. The summer stood out mainly because there were few cool days. Thanks to plenty of sun in June and August, it was also a sunny summer.
June was the second warmest June month since 1901, the beginning of the measurements. The sun showed itself every day somewhere and it was drier than average. July started with a heatwave. From June 30 to August 2, an orange code for extreme heat was in effect in the southeast with temperatures above 35 °C. The highest temperature of this summer was recorded on July 2 with 39.0 °C in Beek.
August Full of Summer
August was warmer than average with an average temperature of 18.3 °C. It often featured moderate summer weather. But from August 11 to 15 it was hot, which resulted in the second heatwave of the summer. It was also a sunny and dry month.
Dry with Significant Regional Differences
With a national average of 155 mm of precipitation against an average of 224 mm, it was a dry summer. Because the precipitation often fell during (heavy) showers, the differences from place to place were large. In the west and south, it was very dry in many places.
Greatest Precipitation Deficit in the Southwest
At the end of August, the national precipitation deficit was about 265 mm. Normally, this is over 100 mm. In terms of precipitation deficit, 2025 is among the 5% driest years up to the end of August. The precipitation deficit was greatest in the southwest with 300-350 mm. In the northeast, the precipitation deficit hardly deviated from the long-term average.
Sunny Summer Thanks to June and August
With a national average of about 750 hours of sunshine compared to a long-term average of 641 hours, the summer was sunny. The least sunny was in Nieuw Beerta with 640 hours of sunshine, the sunniest in Vlissingen with 800 hours. June was very sunny with plenty of sun after June 11. In July, the sun shone about the normal amount. And August had many sunny days.
Climate Change
The picture of this summer fits that of the changing climate: sunny and warm summers with erratic precipitation patterns. The average temperature of this summer is no longer exceptional in the current climate and occurs about once every two years. At the beginning of the last century, these temperatures were very rare. A comparable summer occurred then less than once in a thousand years. A summer that occurred once every two years back then was more than 2.5 degrees cooler than now.
Normal=the long-term average over the period 1991-2020.