Dutch springs are becoming sunnier and 2022 had more sunshine than any other year on record, Dutch weather bureau KNMI said on Tuesday.

The KNMI began registering sunshine levels in 1965 and says the amount last year was 15% higher than in the average year.

Since the 1990s, the amount of sunshine has risen by 3% in 10 years, as more high pressure zones in the spring and summer cut back on cloud.

The volume of rain last year was also down 40% on a normal year and that, combined with the sunshine, led to water shortages and drought in many places.

While the increase in sunshine is good for people with solar panels, the Netherlands is warming up more quickly. Since the start of the last century, the Netherlands has become 2.3 degrees warmer, and that is double the global average, the KNMI said.

The Paris climate agreement states that global warming should be limited to below 2 Celsius, preferably 1.5 Celsius. ‘1.5 Celsius was reached in the northern hemisphere in 2020, but in the Netherlands it happened around 2000,’ the KNMI said.

The KNMI also said the impact of global warming on the number of storms is limited and they are not increasing in number or force. ‘However a warmer climate does increase the volume of rain that these storms bring,’ the agency said.