News of: Friday, December 29 2006,
The year 2006 will be the warmest year since temperature measurements started in Holland, in 1706.
This year has been remarkable, as it was a year of various broken heat records. July and September had the highest average temperature since 1706, and also the autumn as a whole was the hottest autumn ever. 2006 as a whole will have an average temperature of 11.0 Celsius - the previos record of 10.9 degrees was held by the years 1990, 1999 and 2000.
The record is all the more remarkable because 2006 started out quite cold: January and March were much colder on average than normal. Also, August was not very warm.
But July has had 2 long heatwaves, and also the highest temperature ever was measured, at 37.1 degrees Centigrade.
The year 2006 is also the year of the commemoration of 300 years of temperature measurements in Holland. It was the hydraulic engineer Nicolaus Cruquius, whose regular temperature measurements could be reconstructed as far back as 1706. The range of 300 years of measurements is the longest in the world.
Cruquius' work was at the basis of the Haarlemmermeer polder. This polder, intended to protect Amsterdam and Leiden from water problems, is the location of the airport Schiphol.
