After a record wet start to the year, summer is really struggling to break through in the Netherlands. Although Tuesday will get off to a dry and sunny start with balmy temperatures of up to 31 degrees celsius, by the evening a storm will roll in, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and even some hailstones. 

Hot and stormy weather on July 9 in the Netherlands

The weather in the Netherlands is going to be very unsettled over the next couple of days. After a warm and mostly dry start to the week, with highs of between 19 degrees in the Wadden area and 23 degrees in the southeast, on Tuesday things are really hotting up: the KNMI is forecasting that the temperature will rise to at least 28 degrees across the entire country, and perhaps even as high as 30 or 31 degrees in the south. 

A heatwave is, however, not on the cards, because by Tuesday night heavy thunderstorms will roll in from the southwest across to the northeast of the country, bringing heavy rain, thunder and lightning, hail and strong gusts of wind. The KNMI has issued a Code Yellow warning for the entire country, warning that there could be disruption to transport and outdoor activities due to lightning, flooding and trees being blown over. 

The warning will remain in place until midnight on July 9 for most of the country, and until 2am on July 10 for the northern provinces of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel. 

Typical Dutch summer weather continuing for next few weeks

The unsettled weather will also bring the temperature down, with Wednesday looking set to be characterised by sunny spells and isolated showers. Temperatures will struggle to rise above 20 degrees.

Looking further forward, the news isn’t any better unfortunately. Weer.nl says that the outlook until July 20 will see the “typical Dutch summer weather continue unabated” with alternating drier and warmer days and cooler, wetter weather. The chance of a heatwave, in their words, is “not great”. 

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