Dutch experience coldest weather in 12 years....

December and January were very cold months...

With an average temperature of 0.7 degrees Celsius, January has been the coldest month in the Netherlands in 12 years. The National Weather Centre (KNMI) says the usual average is at least two degrees higher. The icy January continues this winter's trend: December was also the coldest since 1997.

The south of the country has largely been experiencing the coldest weather and this has brought down the average for the country overall. In Maastricht the average monthly temperature was a half degree below freezing. On 6 January the coldest temperature was measured at –20.8 in Limburg near Weert. In the South and East, where 10 cm of snow was measured, a temperature of –15 degrees was measured four nights in a row.

It was the first year since 2003 that it was possible to skate on natural ice, but the cold didn’t last as long then. There were also many opportunities to play in the snow. Freezing temperatures didn’t last long enough for there to be talk of a national cold trend (a minimum of 5 freezing days following each other), but it is the coldest winter since 1997.