While southern Europe is sweltering in record temperatures, in the Netherlands the summer so far has been relatively cool and wet, weather experts have told news website Nu.nl.

Yet even though the temperatures have not been high and there has been the odd shower, the official rainwater shortage is still increasing, the website said.

Since April 1, more water has evaporated than has fallen and that means groundwater levels are still going down. “There was very little rain between May and mid June,” said Peter Siegmund, a climate expert with the KNMI meteorological office.

June was the warmest and sunniest since records began in 1901. Just 24 millimetres of rain fell, averaged across the country, compared with 66 in a normal year.

Meteorologists say the current weather pattern of showers and sunshine is set to continue, and there is a chance that the rainwater shortage could be made up.

“It is going to rain a lot in the coming two weeks, every day in fact. So there will be more rain than evaporation,” Siegmund said.

Weerplaza meteorologist Roosmarijn Knol said that it is difficult to forecast what will happen more than two weeks ahead. “There are strong indications that we will be dealing with a westerly wind for the next three weeks, which comes in from the ocean,” she said.

And that means the Netherlands, she said, could be in for more “typical” damp Dutch summer weather.