If you feel like the leaves are changing colour early this year, you’re correct. But it isn’t early onset autumn: it’s drought, experts have said.

In Zeeland, the forests are turning red. In Rotterdam, leaves crunch underfoot. Farmers across the country have been warned about unripe green acorns that are poisonous to sheep, cattle and pigs.

The trees are already showing such autumnal displays, apparently, because they are suffering from drought. “To prevent themselves from dying of dehydration, they often drop their fruit early, and their leaves are already turning red and orange,” Marcel Klootwijk, spokesperson for Zeeland landscape foundation Het Zeeuwse Landschap told NU.nl.

According to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, KNMI, it is an exceptionally dry year.  “The precipitation deficit is about twice as high as normal,” KNMI climate scientist Karin van der Wiel said.

The problem is twofold: there isn’t enough rain and the hot weather evaporates what precipitation does fall at a faster rate.

While the entire country is seeing drought conditions, the problem is more accurate in the southwest.