Western provinces face another warning for strong wind gusts; Schiphol delays rising
The western coastal provinces of the Netherlands were again placed under a Code Yellow weather warning for strong winds. It was at least the fourth warning issued this week by the national meteorological office, KNMI. There were hundreds of flight delays at Schiphol Airport, and there were some issues reported by the NS national railway.
The weather warning was in effect from 4 p.m. until at least 8 p.m. on Sunday. Wind gusts were expected to reach 75-80 kilometers per hour in most of Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland and the Wadden Sea region. Along the coast, the gusts could exceed 90 km/h.
"This may cause disruption to traffic and outdoor activites," the KNMI wrote. "The wind will somewhat decrease during the evening."
Airlines at Schiphol Airport cancelled dozens of flights, and delayed hundreds more. By 4:30 p.m., some 34 departing flights were cancelled, and 303 departures faced delays. Another 32 arrivals were cancelled, and 323 inbound flights were delayed.
A spokesperson for KLM, the largest airline operating at Schiphol, said they cancelled 26 flights in and out of Amsterdam in preparation for the weather, according to ANP. More cancellations could be on the way. The newswire noted that only two of the six runways were open.
Eurocontrol warned that arrivals were being regulated at a reduced rate due to the weather. In it's 4:35 p.m. update, the European air traffic control organization said that "high delays" were likely.
There were several issues to passenger services, with a defective overhead wiring system causing problems on routes connecting Leiden Centraal to The Hague, Haarlem, Hoofddorp and Amsterdam Centraal. The problem was unlikely to be resolved before 6:15 p.m. on Sunday.
The signal outage between Apeldoorn and Zutphen also meant there were no trains running between the two cities. That was expected to continue until 7:15 p.m. A signal and switch malfunction also led to an ongoing problem between Zwolle and Emmen, where a replacement bus service was active.
