The weather folks have measured 39,1 degrees in Gilzen en Rijen, Noord-Brabant, breaking the record of 38.6 degrees set back in 1944 in Warnsveld, Gelderland. We also broke some records last year – imagine if this trend continues over the years to come. On 23 July 2019 as well the country had its warmest 23 July ever, at 31.7 degrees.
The country has invoked the National Heat Plan, which kicks in at 27 degrees and involves keeping an eye on the elderly and the sick (breathing issues, dizziness) and anybody working in hot conditions (water, cooling, breaks).
Since the Netherlands is not big on air conditioning, finding a cool place to be can be difficult. Everybody can always drink lots of water, especially if they are dizzy, which means they haven’t been drinking enough water in the first place. Wiping your cat or dog’s forehead with a wet cloth is a good tip, as is eating fruits like watermelon.
Dutch weather, which is usually measured in De Bilt, Utrecht by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) tells us we’re officially experiencing a national heatwave. Yesterday, temperatures hit 30 degrees at 11:20, the third consecutive day of ‘tropical’ weather, which here means above 30 degrees. And it’s only considered a heatwave if there are five consecutive days of 25 degrees or higher, with three days of 30 degrees or higher.
Heat records were broken at 15 of the country’s 33 weather stations in the Netherlands yesterday. Arcen in Limburg was the hottest, with a maximum of 38.2 degrees. Terschelling’s record was broken with the biggest difference, 1.6 degrees higher than the previous record.
Temperatures in De Bilt have been 25 degrees or higher since July 15, which makes it 13 days running if you count today. The record is 18 days, from July 29 to August 15 in 1975 and many people believe it might be broken.
There’s no airco at 24HQ, just the occasional breeze from an open window and excellent music.
Trains have stopped, planes are grounded, a lot of public transport is interrupted, a lot of bikes and scooters outside 24HQ have tipped over, and there’s a whole lot of Dutch reports of different things being blown around. Here’s a selection:
Filed under: Bicycles,Nature by Branko Collin @ 10:33 pm
At hetregentbijnanooit.nl (it almost never rains dot nl) avid cyclist Gerard Poels from Grave near Nijmegen keeps track of how many of his bicycle commutes get rained on.
In the past five years it rained during an average of 9.4% of Poels’ rides, each of which took 40 minutes each way. Poels counts every little shower even if it rains for just a few minutes. He claims it happens only 4 or 5 times each year that it rains during the entire ride. During those five years Poels rode his bike to and from work 1,482 times.
Poels set up his site to counter the excuse “I am not going to take the bike to work because it always rains [in the Netherlands]”.
Eamelje.net points out that Peter Siegmund of the Dutch meteorological office (KNMI) calculated the probability that you will get wet if you stay outdoors (PDF). If you stay outdoors for an hour in the Netherlands, there is a 12% chance that you will get rained on. If you stay out for four hours, that probability increases to about 25%, and you will have to stay out for at least a fortnight to be absolutely sure to get wet. Siegmund adds that fans of camping are most likely to stay dry in June. Even then the probability of rain during a single week is still 91%.
Bicycle blogger Mark Wagenbuur has enough clout these days that when he calls the city’s department for public works to tell them they forgot to clear a bike path of snow, they go out and clear the bike path.
The city of Den Bosch went even further and invited him over for an in-depth explanation of how clearing the roads works, which led to a fascinating blog post and video (in English):
A city of the size of Den Bosch (140,000 inhabitants) in this day and age works with sophisticated technology to detect and combat slippery road surfaces. Sensors in the road, weather reports from different sources and agreements with other governments and other departments all feed information to the five people who make sure someone is on duty around the clock during the winter months. “The city in turn warns the smaller towns in the vicinity, which cannot afford to have such a sophisticated system themselves.”
Filed under: Online,Sports by Branko Collin @ 1:27 pm
The Dutch are waiting for three magic words: ” It. Giet. Oan.” If uttered by the 22 district heads of the biggest ice skating endurance race this side of the Baltic, they will signify the start of said race, the Elfstedentocht.
But first the ice along the canals and lakes of the 220-kilometre-long Elfstedentocht has to thicken. IJsdikte.eu provides a platform where volunteers can enter ice thickness in Friesland. Currently, there is a lot of ice of between 6 and 12 centimetres to be found. To be able to sustain the large amounts of people that would participate in the Elfstedentocht, the ice needs to be at least 15 centimetres thick. During the previous Elfstedentochten the ice was an average of 18 centimetres thick.
Earlier this morning the 22 district heads who had had their first meeting in 15 years, told the press that the ice was ‘fantastic’ in the North of the province, but weak in the South near Stavoren and Luts. At least another week of frost is required to freeze the weak spots. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) predicted yesterday that the ice would reach a thickness of 25 centimetres on Saturday 11 February.
The Elfstedentocht is only open to members, many of which have been members for decades. There are also people who were registered at birth, but who have yet to skate their first race. The last race was in 1997, and won by Henk Angenent. If the race goes on (‘giet aon’), the province of Friesland expects to welcome 2 million spectators.
It’s been raining a lot here this summer—I thought I’d share the pain (and the view from my window) a bit.
Meanwhile, Noordhoff publishers and the Dutch weather office, KNMI, presented a climate atlas last week. Some interesting tidbits:
* Worldwide the temperature has risen 0.7 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years, in the Netherlands that was 1.4.
* The temperature in Amsterdam averages 11 degrees Celsius over the past thirty years, which is the same average as Lyon (in the South of France) had thirty years ago.
* The rainiest places in the country are the Veluwe (the nature reserve in the middle of the country) and the North of Amsterdam.
* The skies released 850 litres water per square metre on average; 100 years ago that average was 700 litres.
Since we’re in the middle of a period of global warming, it is expected that these trends will continue (though KNMI is hedging its bets).
Maastricht beer producer Wieckse, perhaps best known for its white beer, has started a website that will show you how sunny it is at many sidewalk cafes in the Netherlands. Called zonneradar.nl, the website also tells you where you will find the sunniest sidewalk cafe in the Netherlands of the moment. White beer is especially popular during sunny weather, according to Wikipedia, because it lacks the distinct hoppish flavour that is present in other beers.
Weather woman Helga van de Leur told Bright (Dutch): “The weather in the Netherlands isn’t as bad as people often think. Research shows that two-thirds of the population underestimate the amount of sun hours. You just have to know where it shines.” Not in Moscow, right now.
Filed under: General,Sports by Branko Collin @ 2:29 pm
No Elfstedentocht for now. National weather institute KNMI predicts that Monday a period of thaw will set in, with wind coming from the South and from the South West. That also means that the country will not have had an official cold wave, which in the Netherlands is defined as at least five consecutive days of frost of which three dip below -10 degrees.
Somebody who won’t be skating for a while anyway is Eimer van Middelkoop: the defense minister broke his wrist during a 30 kilometer skating tour between Bleiswijk and Zevenhuizen, according to Nu.nl (Dutch).
Skating madness held the country in its grip the past weeks, but with the temperature dipping the lowest in the South, the madness spilled over to Belgium. The spokesperson for Vereniging De Friesche Elf Steden, the organizer of the Elfstedentocht, told BN/De Stem (Dutch) that most foreign journalistic attention stems from our Southern neighbours. One fanatic Belgian skater and past participant in the Elfstedentocht, Henri Jaecques, argues in Het Nieuwsblad (Dutch) that Flanders should have its own mythical skate race. “From Sluis to Ieper, 200 kilometer, and perfectly skateable.” The first part of that trajectory, a 16 kilometer strip from Sluis to Brugge, was declared officially open to skaters this weekend, according to De Telegraaf (Dutch).
Photo top: a chair in IJburg, Amsterdam awaiting the next novice skater or an ever grimmer fate.
The climate change in the Netherlands is happening twice as fast as compared to the rest of the world, according to television’s RTL Nieuws on Wednesday based on two yet to be published studies. Cees Molenaars of the KNMI (Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute) confirmed the news. “One of the parts of the report regards the warming up of all of Western Europe, which is twice as fast as elsewehere”, says Molenaars. He also says that there is no reason to panic on the short term. However, winters will be milder and there will be more precipitation.
More precipitation in the Netherlands is usually a euphemism for more rain and hail rather than snow. Ick.
At 
Bicycle blogger Mark Wagenbuur has enough clout these days that when he calls the city’s department for public works to tell them they forgot to clear a bike path of snow, they go out and clear the bike path. 
The Dutch are waiting for three magic words: ” It. Giet. Oan.” If uttered by the 22 district heads of the biggest ice skating endurance race this side of the Baltic, they will signify the start of said race, the 
No Elfstedentocht for now. National weather institute KNMI predicts that Monday a period of thaw will set in, with wind coming from the South and from the South West. That also means that the country will not have had an official cold wave, which in the Netherlands is defined as at least five consecutive days of frost of which three dip below -10 degrees.
