2022 is the sunniest since records began in 1901, with the number of hours of sunshine set to top 2100 on Tuesday or Wednesday, the Telegraaf reported on Tuesday.

That means the sunshine weather record will have been broken with seven weeks to go before the end of the year, the paper said. The previous record dates from 2003, when 2099.5 hours of sunshine were recorded.

In a normal year, the sun shines for some 1770 hours a year.

The west of the country was sunnier than the east and the Den Helder weather station recorded the most sunshine – almost 2,250 hours so far.

The 2022 record is largely due to the weather in March and August. March had 245 hours of sunshine, over 100 more than in an average year. But February, April, June, July and October were also sunnier than average, and all make it into the top 10 sunniest month rankings.

November so far has been extremely mild, weather bureau WeerOnline said, and it will remain warmer than average up to next weekend at least. Temperatures are currently around 14 and 15 degrees, compared with a November average of just 10.