Sunday was the coldest September 18 on record, with the temperature reaching no more than 13.3 Celsius at the key De Bilt weather station near Utrecht, weather forecasters say.

The previous record dates back to 1960, when the temperature was as low as 13.5 Celsius. Weeronline forecaster Johnny Willemsen points out that weather records about the cold are much rarer than those about high temperatures and the new record is the first in three years.

So far, four warm weather records have been broken in 2022, Willemsen said.

According to the KNMI weather bureau, the temperature will rise to around 20 Celsius again by the end of the week.

Monday will be a mixed bag of sunshine and showers, and the picture is similar well into October, the KNMI said.