Wettest Pentecost Sunday on record

Sunday was the wettest Pentecost Sunday ever recorded in the Netherlands. The national weather station in De Bilt measured 26.1 mm of rain, breaking the 23.3 mm record measured on 20 May 1945, Weeronline reports.

The Betuwe and a wide strip from Eindhoven to Den Bosch got between 40 and 60 mm of rain, resulting in local flooding. Usually, the Netherlands gets about 68 mm of rain in the whole month of June.

Before the soggy Sunday, many parts of the Netherlands faced drought, with the southeast and southwest of the country particularly having significant precipitation deficits. "In that respect, the precipitation was very welcome for nature, but less fortunate in terms of timing for the many outdoor activities during the Whitsun weekend," the weather service said.

The rain zone left the country into the North Sea last night, but Monday will again see showers, if not as intense as Sunday. The first half of the day will be mostly dry with even some periods of sunshine. But cloud cover and rain will increase from the west in the afternoon. Before the rain, maximums will climb to 15 to 19 degrees, with some places in the southeast maybe hitting 20 degrees Celsius.

The chance of this becoming the wettest Pentecost weekend in history is minimal, according to Weeronline. That record stands on 13 June 2011, when a total of 58.9 mm of rain fell over the two Pentecost days in De Bilt. That amount fell completely on Whit Monday. This year is in second place, with yesterday's 26.1 mm and the 0.1 mm that has already fallen today.