Editing Geography of the Netherlands (section)

==Climate==

The predominant wind direction in the European Netherlands is southwest, which causes a mild [[Oceanic climate|maritime climate]], with moderately warm summers and cool winters, and typically high humidity. This is especially true close to the Dutch coastline, where the difference in temperature between summer and winter, as well as between day and night is noticeably smaller than it is in the southeast of the country.

Ice days—maximum temperature below {{convert|0|C|F|0}}—usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days—minimum temperature below {{convert|0|C|F|0}}—occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May. If one chooses the height of measurement to be {{convert|10|cm|0|abbr=on}} above ground instead of {{convert|150|cm|0|abbr=on}}, one may even find such temperatures in the middle of the summer. On average, snow can occur from November to April but sometimes occurs in May or October too.

Warm days—maximum temperature above {{convert|20|C|F|0}}—are usually found in April to October, but in some parts of the country these warm days can also occur in March, or even sometimes in November or February (usually not in {{Not a typo|De Bilt}}, however). Summer days—maximum temperature above {{convert|25|C|F|0}}—are usually measured in {{Not a typo|De Bilt}} from May until September, tropical days—maximum temperature above {{convert|30|C|F|0}}—are rare and usually occur only in June to August.

Precipitation throughout the year is distributed relatively equally each month. Summer and autumn months tend to gather a little more precipitation than the other months, mainly because of the intensity of the rainfall rather than the frequency of rain days (this is especially the case in summer when lightning is also much more frequent).

The number of sunshine hours is affected by the fact that because of the geographical latitude, the length of the days varies between barely eight hours in December and nearly 17 hours in June.

The following table is based on mean measurements by the [[KNMI (institute)|KNMI]] weather station in [[De Bilt]] between 1991 and 2020. The highest recorded temperature was {{convert|40.7|C|F|abbr=on}}, reached on 25 July 2019 in [[Gilze-Rijen]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.knmi.nl/over-het-knmi/nieuws/temperatuur-door-historische-grens-van-40-c | title=KNMI – Temperatuur door historische grens van 40°C}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/24/summers-second-heatwave-set-to-break-records-across-europe|title = Climate crisis blamed as temperature records broken in three nations| website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date = 24 July 2019}}</ref> The lowest temperature in the Netherlands was recorded at [[Winterswijk]] on 27 January 1942, when the temperature dropped to {{convert|-27.4|C|F|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.knmi.nl/kennis-en-datacentrum/uitleg/recordkoude-februari-van-1956|title=Recordkoude februari van 1956|work=KNMI.nl}}</ref>

{{stack begin | clear=false | float=center}}
{{Weather box
| collapsed    =
|location = De Bilt (1991–2020 averages), all KNMI locations (1901–2021 extremes), snowy days: (2003-2020 averages).
|metric first = Yes
|single line = Yes
|Jan record high C = 16.5     <!-- Maastricht, jan 16 (1947)-->
|Feb record high C = 20.5     <!-- Arcen, feb 27 (2019)-->
|Mar record high C = 26.1     <!-- Arcen, mar 31 (2021)-->
|Apr record high C = 32.2     <!-- Venlo, apr 21 (1968)-->
|May record high C = 35.6     <!-- Sittard, may 25 (1922)-->
|Jun record high C = 37.2     <!-- Maastricht, jun 27 (1947)-->
|Jul record high C = 40.7     <!-- Gilze-Rijen, jul 25 (2019)--> 
|Aug record high C = 37.8     <!-- Arcen, aug 8 (2003)-->
|Sep record high C = 35.1     <!-- Gilze-Rijen, sep 15 (2020)-->
|Oct record high C = 30.1     <!-- Sittard, oct 10 (1921)-->
|Nov record high C = 22.0     <!-- Ell, nov 1 (2014)-->
|Dec record high C = 16.7     <!-- Maastricht, dec 4 (1953)-->
|year record high C = 40.7 
|Jan high C = 6.1
|Feb high C = 7.0
|Mar high C = 10.5
|Apr high C = 14.8
|May high C = 18.3
|Jun high C = 20.9
|Jul high C = 23.1
|Aug high C = 22.9
|Sep high C = 19.5
|Oct high C = 14.8
|Nov high C = 9.9
|Dec high C = 6.7
|year high C = 14.5
|Jan mean C = 3.6
|Feb mean C = 3.9
|Mar mean C = 6.5
|Apr mean C = 9.8
|May mean C = 13.4
|Jun mean C = 16.2
|Jul mean C = 18.3
|Aug mean C = 17.9
|Sep mean C = 14.7
|Oct mean C = 10.9
|Nov mean C = 7.0
|Dec mean C = 4.2
|year mean C = 10.5
|Jan low C = 0.9
|Feb low C = 0.7
|Mar low C = 2.4
|Apr low C = 4.5
|May low C = 8.0
|Jun low C = 10.8
|Jul low C = 13.0
|Aug low C = 12.5
|Sep low C = 10.0
|Oct low C = 7.1
|Nov low C = 3.9
|Dec low C = 1.6
|year low C = 6.0
|Jan record low C = -27.4
|Feb record low C = -26.8
|Mar record low C = -20.7
|Apr record low C = -9.4
|May record low C = -5.4
|Jun record low C = -1.2
|Jul record low C = 0.7
|Aug record low C = 1.3
|Sep record low C = -3.7
|Oct record low C = -8.5
|Nov record low C = -14.4
|Dec record low C = -22.3
|year record low C = -27.4
|Jan precipitation mm = 70.8
|Feb precipitation mm = 63.1
|Mar precipitation mm = 57.8
|Apr precipitation mm = 41.6
|May precipitation mm = 59.3
|Jun precipitation mm = 70.5
|Jul precipitation mm = 85.2
|Aug precipitation mm = 83.6
|Sep precipitation mm = 77.9
|Oct precipitation mm = 81.1
|Nov precipitation mm = 80.0
|Dec precipitation mm = 83.8
|year precipitation mm = 854.7
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan humidity= 87
|Feb humidity= 84
|Mar humidity= 79
|Apr humidity= 74
|May humidity= 74
|Jun humidity= 75
|Jul humidity= 77
|Aug humidity= 79
|Sep humidity= 83
|Oct humidity= 86
|Nov humidity= 89
|Dec humidity= 89
|year humidity= 81
|unit precipitation days = 0.1 mm
|Jan precipitation days = 18
|Feb precipitation days = 16
|Mar precipitation days = 15
|Apr precipitation days = 12
|May precipitation days = 14
|Jun precipitation days = 14
|Jul precipitation days = 15
|Aug precipitation days = 15
|Sep precipitation days = 14
|Oct precipitation days = 16
|Nov precipitation days = 19
|Dec precipitation days = 19
|year precipitation days = 186
|unit snow days = 0 cm
|Jan snow days = 5
|Feb snow days = 6
|Mar snow days = 3
|Apr snow days = 0
|May snow days = 0
|Jun snow days = –
|Jul snow days = –
|Aug snow days = –
|Sep snow days = –
|Oct snow days = 0
|Nov snow days = 1
|Dec snow days = 4
|year snow days = 19
|Jan sun = 66.6
|Feb sun = 89.6
|Mar sun = 139.4
|Apr sun = 189.2
|May sun = 217.5
|Jun sun = 207.1
|Jul sun = 213.9
|Aug sun = 196.3
|Sep sun = 152.8
|Oct sun = 119.3
|Nov sun = 67.4
|Dec sun = 55.5
|year sun = 1714.6
|date=March 2021
|source 1 = KNMI.nl<ref name="knmi">{{cite web| url = http://www.knmi.nl/|title = Knmi.nl| access-date =11 March 2021|language = nl}}</ref>
}}
{{stack end}}