Thursday is the first official summer’s day of the year because the temperature has topped 25° at the Bilt weather station near Utrecht, where all weather records are set. 

But it was warmer in other places – reaching over 26° in Eindhoven and in parts of Gelderland, weather forecaster Weeronline said.

There are normally 29 days on which the Bilt weather station records a temperature of more than 25°, Weeronline said, after looking at the past 30 years. 

The warm weather is set to be short-lived and the KNMI weather bureau has issued a code yellow warning for central and southern provinces this evening, saying strong winds, heavy rain and hail stones up to two centimetres across could batter the south.