Thursday was the first official warm day of the year, with the temperature at the De Bilt weather station near Utrecht topping 20 Celsius in the early afternoon.

Although it has been warmer in other places this spring, it is temperatures at De Bilt which set official records. The temperature edged up above 20 degrees to 20.2 at 1.20pm. The last officially warm day of 2022 was October 30, or 186 days ago.

The Netherlands has had an average of 98 ‘warm’ days a year since 2000, with the record – 132 – set in 2018.

To count as a ‘tropical’ day, the temperature has to top 30 Celsius in De Bilt while a ‘summer’ day is considered to be 25 Celsius and above. A heatwave requires at least five summer days in a row, in which a minimum of three are tropical.