Never before have we had such a sunny summer as this year. With three summer days to go before the meteorological fall arrives, the old record from 1976 has been broken.
It has been getting sunnier since the 1990s, KNMI knows. Every ten years it gets about 3 percent sunnier, and in the spring even 5 percent. The weather institute calculates the national solar radiation on the basis of the average solar radiation measured at the five KNMI stations De Kooy (near Den Helder), Eelde (near Groningen), De Bilt, Vlissingen and Maastricht.
The old record of 1976 was an average solar radiation of 229 Watts per square meter. According to the KNMI, the average will be higher this year at approximately 238 W/m2. The average value over the years 1991-2020 is 206 W/m2.
The solar radiation is not evenly distributed over the country. The west coast receives an average of 9 percent more sun in summer than the east of the country, 216 versus 199 W/m2.
The result is a lack of precipitation
More sun in spring and summer contributes to the warming of the Netherlands in addition to the global temperature increase, according to the weather institute. This also leads to a precipitation deficit. Incidentally, according to the KNMI, solar radiation is increasing in almost all of Europe. This is partly due to a decrease in cloud cover due to an increasing number of high pressure areas in the spring and summer, and partly because the air has become cleaner.
“Based on calculations with climate models, in the high KNMI climate scenario, we take into account a normal value of 219 W/m2 around 2085, an increase of more than 6 percent compared to the current climate normal,” according to the weather institute. “We therefore expect the current trend of 3 percent per ten years to level off in the future because we have more cloudy summer weather again. In addition to global warming caused by humans, natural variations in the weather continue to have a major impact on solar radiation, drought and temperature in the Netherlands.”
Check out our most viewed news videos in the playlist below:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss out on any of the stars.
#Weve #sunny #summer #46yearold #record #books
