King Willem Alexander. Photo Shutterstock.
From one of our correspondents.
King Willem-Alexander celebrated his 57th birthday on Saturday. How has the climate changed during his lifetime? And what will that look like when he turns 70 in 2037? And when Crown Princess Amalia turns 70? Pregnant questions from our royal climate institute.
57 times the weather on April 27
On Willem-Alexander’s birthday on April 27, 1967, the weather was dry and sunny, with a maximum temperature of 15 °C in De Bilt (image 1). Over the years, Willem-Alexander experienced widely varying temperatures on his birthday. It was warmest on his 40th birthday in 2007, when it was no less than 27.3 °C. His 18th birthday in 1985 was the coldest, when it was only 7.4 °C. Often wearing the coat, but also for years the coat could remain in the closet.
Orange alarm from the KNMI: Together we must ensure that we limit greenhouse gas emissions. To keep our country safe, liveable and prosperous in the future.
And the climate?
The climate is actually nothing more than the average weather. The weather is erratic and varies greatly from day to day and from year to year, hence the major differences you see on the King’s birthday, says the KNMI.
Due to the variability of the weather on individual days, it is difficult to say anything about a change in climate on one particular day. There are simply too few measurements for this and the variability is therefore too great. We never watch it for the same reason daily records.
If you compare Alexander’s first 28 birthdays with the last 28, you will see something change (image 1). The average maximum temperature on his birthday in the first half of his life was 13.5 °C, in the second half 16.3 °C. So on average a lot warmer. And on his 26th birthday the temperature exceeded 20 °C for the first time, and this has happened five times since then.
The poor king will be very hot in the future, according to the alarmist KNMI. What is currently a record warm year will already be an average year around 2037.
But to see more precisely how the climate has changed during the King’s life, it is better to look at the average temperature in the entire month of April or in the entire year, writes the KNMI.
Image 1. Maximum temperature in De Bilt on April 27, the birthday of King Willem-Alexander, from his birth in 1967 to 2024. The value for 2024 is the expected temperature on April 27, 2024. Source: KNMI.
Image 2. Climate barcode for King Willem-Alexander. ©KNMI.
Image 3. Climate barcode for Crown Princess Amalia. ©KNMI.
Amalia is relatively warmer than her father.
The King’s climate barcode
That’s exactly what the climate barcode do. Willem-Alexander’s climate barcode shows the average temperature in the Netherlands with a colored bar for each subsequent year from his year of birth, 1967 (image 2).
The average temperature in the year of his birth was 9.9 °C. During his lifetime, the Netherlands has already warmed by 2°C. Last year, 2023, was record warm with an average temperature of 11.8°C. When the King turns 70 in 2037, the average annual temperature will be around this value. In other words, what is currently a record warm year will already be an average year around 2037. In the low scenario, warming remains limited and the average annual temperature is slightly lower, but the differences between both scenarios will remain unchanged during the rest of Willem-Alexander’s life. not that big yet.
And what about Crown Princess Amalia?
This is different for Amalia (image 3). When Amalia was born in 2003, the climate was already significantly different than in 1967. For her, and for other young people, it makes a big difference how we as a world will tackle greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years. In the year of Amalia’s 70th birthday, the average temperature under the high emissions scenario may be around 13°C, which is another 2°C warmer than now. If we adhere to the Paris climate agreement, the temperature increase will be limited to only slightly warmer than now, the institute writes.
Whether this will succeed depends of course on the efforts of countries worldwide. We must therefore all ensure that we limit greenhouse gas emissions. To keep our country safe, liveable and prosperous in the future.
Thank you, KNMI.
***
Bron here.
***
