The Netherlands is literally in the middle of a heatwave (in JANUARY)

Temperatures of up to 17 degrees Celsius have hit the Netherlands this week, making it the warmest beginning to a year on record. 🥵 

The Netherlands has just broken a record and it’s not one that has us saying gefeliciteerd!

Climate specialist Bart Verheggen told RTL Nieuws that these temperatures are niet normaal and that the same panic over extremely hot summers needs to be applied to warm winters.

This January has already experienced temperatures of 16.9 degrees, setting records for the warmest January day ever measured for seven European countries.

READ NEXT | Minimise your climate impact in the Netherlands: 5 steps

Winter heatwave

In a world faced with a crisis, you might expect immediate action to be a response to such news. Except, 16 degrees isn’t as uncomfortable as 40 degrees in the summer, so feelings are very different.

The nights are even as warm as the days, with “temperatures (that) belong to May or June,” says Maurice Middendorp of Buienradar to RTL Nieuws.

It goes without saying that action needs to be taken, especially when foreign meteorologists label the issue as “the worst heatwave ever.” 😲

A European effort

The Netherlands isn’t the only one suffering; the rest of Europe has been dealt the same blow. 🔥

“The intensity and magnitude of this winter heatwave are unique in European history,” says meteorologist Colin McArthy to RTL Nieuws.

Ecological collapse

Biologist Arnold van Vliet says that “Ecosystems are in decline,” and that plants and animals are in real trouble due to man-made climate change.

READ MORE | This innovative Dutch “Tree Cocoon” could help reforest the planet

Come on guys: how many more klimaatklever people do there need to be for climate change to be taken more seriously?

Have you been feeling the rising temps this winter? Tell us in the comments below.

Eva Gabriella
Eva Gabriella
After calling Malaysia her home for 19 years, Eva moved to Amsterdam to study literary and cultural analysis. Well, that was the academic theory — in reality it was more like “cultural shock.” Eva’s mastery of life in the Netherlands involved initiation into the richness of nocturnal hangouts, canals, cuisine, and upright and forthright cyclists (who she now rings her bell back at.) When she is not speeding her way through books, she is winding and weaving down endless straatjes, often finding herself, not so quite by chance, in a gezellig music bar!

1 COMMENT

  1. Climate change is a natural phenomenon, humans may possibly have speeded up the current cycle.
    Governments are using it as a weapon to control the majority.
    There is a simple solution that doesn’t involve control and tax. Consider the billions of trees that have been cut done without replacement. We have released carbon that was captured millions of years ago so we should capture it again.one tree planted per person (global population) per year would be a good start.
    We don’t get told the land is sinking in the Pacific, we are told the sea is rising. The planet has undergone constant destruction and reconstruction throughout its life, so even disappearing land is nothing new.

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