Climate scenarios

As a delta country, the climate plays in the Netherlands an important role. For an accessible, livable and safe country, knowledge about the future climate is of great importance. With coastal defenses, dikes and infrastructural projects we adapt as well as possible. This requires large investments for which it is essential to look far ahead. Therefore, the climate scenarios of KNMI give insight into the future climate of the Netherlands.

Together, the KNMI climate scenarios cover the vertices of likely changes in the climate of the Netherlands. The KNMI'14 climate scenarios show a picture of higher temperatures, accelerating sea level rise, wetter winters, more intense showers and chances on drier summers.

The KNMI’14 scenarios serve as an update, based on the latest scientific findings, to the previous generation of future climate scenarios issued in 2006. The scenarios also include new and more detailed information. For example, they give snapshots of future weather and provide information about fog, radiation, evaporation and hail.

Summary

Higher temperatures, accelerating sea level rise, wetter winters, more intense showers and chances on drier summers. According to the KNMI'14 climate scenarios, this we need to take into account for the future in the Netherlands.

The KNMI'14 climate scenarios (May 2014) translate the research results on the global climate in the IPCC report (2013) to the Netherlands. Together, the KNMI climate scenarios cover the vertices of likely changes in the climate of the Netherlands. They give the change around 2050 and 2085 compared to the climate in the period 1981-2010. The four KNMI'14 scenarios differ in the extent to which the global temperature increases ('Moderate' and 'Warm') and the possible change of the air circulation pattern ("Low value" and "High Value").