Code yellow due to wind gusts for Sunday in the north and northwest of the country

The Dutch meteorological institute KNMI has issued code yellow for Sunday during the day due to strong wind gusts in the northwest and north of the country. These occur mainly on the sea and on the IJsselmeer.

The wind comes from the southwest and will decrease in strength late Sunday afternoon. However, no warnings are in effect for Saturday.

The winter climate in the Netherlands has generally changed rapidly: It's becoming less gloomy, but also much wetter, said Weer.nl, and a winter like this one was more of an exception in the last century.

The meteorological winter, which began on December 1, has been very mild and wet so far, now that the meteorological winter is half over on Saturday, reported Weer.nl. The average temperature reached 5.5 degrees in De Bilt, compared to 4.0 degrees normally.

It was very wet with a national average of about 165 mm of precipitation compared to 119 normal. The sun shone exactly the usual amount of 88 hours.

Global warming has led to an increase in average temperature in recent decades. Between 1991 and 2020, temperatures from December 1 to January 14 averaged 4.0 degrees. Ten years earlier (1981 - 2010), it was 3.5 degrees and only 2.4 degrees 50 years ago, according to Weer.nl.

However, this winter brought a period of frost in the first half for the first time since 2011. By Dec. 18, it was too cold for this time of year. It was coldest in the early morning of Dec. 14, when -10.6 degrees was recorded at normal observation altitude in Eelde and -10.5 degrees at Twenthe airfield near Enschede. On the other hand, it was never so warm at the turn of the year, with 15.5 degrees in De Bilt and 16.6 degrees in Ell.