Very warm September

September was a warm month this year. The average temperature was 16.7 degrees Celsius. That is 2 degrees warmer than normal.

This made September the sixth-warmest September since 1901. It was also fairly dry this month. The sun shone frequently in September.

There were approximately 170 hours of sunshine. Normally, there are 159. It had been sunny for seven consecutive months.

In De Bilt (a town where the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute is based), the sun shone for 165 hours. Over the past thirty years, the number of sunshine hours in September has increased by 28%. This is because there was less cloud cover.

There were also few showers this month. On average, 60 millimeters of rain fell in the Netherlands. Normally, that figure is 73 millimeters.

Most of the rain fell during the first twenty days of September. In De Bilt, 60 millimeters of rain fell, which is less than normal there. Hoek van Holland (a coastal town in the Netherlands) received the most rain: 95 millimeters.

Heino received the least: 35 millimeters. The highest temperature of the month was recorded in Ell. On September 7, the temperature there reached 30.4 degrees Celsius.

There were no truly tropical days, but there were four summer days (above 25 degrees Celsius) and twenty warm days (above 20 degrees Celsius). That was more than normal. September is now almost as warm as June used to be.

The rain has slightly reduced the precipitation deficit, but it remains one of the driest years.