The warm winter weather has already led to hay-fever warnings, as hazel trees produces catkins earlier than normal, and weather forecasters in the Netherlands see no snow and ice in sight.

Winter may run officially until March so there is still time for change, but ‘there are no signs that we are going to get any sort of wintry weather in the Netherlands’ Weerplaza forecaster Raymond Klaassen told news website Nu.nl.

Winter requires easterly winds and the Netherlands is currently experiencing warm wind from the southwest, he said. ‘And that explains why we’ve had these high temperatures – 10 and 11 Celsius – which are very mild for January.’

Meteorologist Reiner van den Berg also says ‘all the signs are that these very mild temperatures are set to continue’. ‘We might have the odd cold night with some ground frost, but I don’t think it will be any more than that until spring,’ he told Nu.nl.

The KNMI’s Rob van Dorland does, however, see a glimmer of hope. ‘There is no wintry weather in the 14-day forecast and it is not really possible to get an idea beyond that,’ he said. ‘So perhaps we will get a very cold February.’

The KNMI’s forecast to January 21 is for above average temperatures, sunny periods and just a 30% chance of rain.