The temperature hit 12.2 degrees at 7am on Wednesday morning, making it the warmest January 24 on record, the KNMI weather bureau said.

The previous record dates from 1960 when the temperature hit 12.1 degrees at the De Bilt weather station near Hilversum.

The temperature will rise still further, reaching 13 to 14 degrees in much of the country, spokesman Bart van den Turk told broadcaster NOS. On Thursday, it will be a maximum of around nine degrees, with similar temperatures for the rest of the week.

Such temperatures are no longer extremely unusual for January, and even the cold days are getting warmer, Van den Turk said.

‘Warm weather records are being broken by the dozen but that is not the case for cold days,’ the KNMI spokesman said. ‘There are very clear trends over the past 100 years and really cold days are becoming increasingly rare. The chance of proper frosts is also being reduced.’