In 1995 under the auspices of KNMI the first volume of a series of 7 books on the weather in the Low Countries for the past millennium was published. In the books the course of the weather during both the winter and summer season from year to year and placed in a historical context. In spring 2006, Vol. V, covering the era 1675-1750 appeared, which with the oldest part of the instrumental period is covered.

The reconstruction of the weather in the Low Countries is based on sources that are related to the area geographically covered by the present Netherlands and neighbouring areas of the southern part of the North Sea; Great Britain, Northern districts of France, the downstream basin of the Rhine, Westphalia and Northwest Germany. If relevant, remarkable or extreme weather in Middle Europe or even Northern Italy is also considered.

The major part of the text is devoted to detailed, well-documented, annotated descriptions and analyses of the weather in the past. Numerous compilations and classifications offer a structured base for further interpretations. Examples of information are sources per era and per area, climatology per 25 year period, harvest data, ice on major rivers, tree-ring data, classifications of winter and summer temperature, wet and dry seasons, storms and storm surges.

The books are written in the Dutch language and therefore not easily accessible to the international research world. In some international publications, mentioned later, some of the issues are highlighted: the historical sources used and the way the historical evidence could be classified into series of winter and summer temperature indices and instrumental temperatures as well.

Information from the books is applied in international research like EU-FP6 “Millennium Project” and bridge to the EUMETNET-ECSN project “European Climate Assessment & Dataset” ECA&D (see links), that provides a baseline dataset for the conversion of non instrumental documentary proxy evidence into instrumental terms.

1) J. Buisman and A.F.V. van Engelen (editor), Duizend jaar weer wind en water in de Lage Landen, Van Wijnen, Franeker (Netherlands). Vol. I, 763-1300, 1995, Vol. II, 1300-1450, 1996, Vol. III, 1450-1575, 1998, Vol. IV, 1575-1675, 2000, Vol. V, 1675-1750, 2006

2) Shabalova, M.V. and A.F.V. van Engelen, Evaluation of a reconstruction of temperature in the Low Countries AD 764-1998, accepted Climatic Change, 2002.

3) Engelen, A.F.V. van, Buisman, J. and F. IJnsen, A millennium of weather, winds and water in the Low Countries, In: History and Climate, memories of the future?/edited by P.D. Jones et al, Kluwer Academic, 2001.

4) Engelen, A.F.V. van, Le climat du dernier millénaire en Europe, In : L’Homme face au climat, Symposium annuel Collège de France/ edited by Édouard Bard et al, Odile Jacob, 2006