Jocelyn officially the third storm of the year; Warmest January 23 ever measured

The average wind force reached 9 in Vlissingen and IJmuiden, officially making Jocelyn the third storm to hit the Netherlands this year, Weeronline reports. The strong winds caused damage in various places in the Netherlands overnight, mostly in the form of blown down trees and fallen branches. Yesterday was also the warmest January 23 in the Netherlands since temperature measurements started in 1901.

The heaviest gusts of wind measured so far were 99 kilometers per hour in Vlissingen and 97 km/h at Schiphol. Storm Jocelyn is still causing strong winds in most of the country on Wednesday morning. The KNMI has a code yellow warning in place for all provinces except Limburg and Noord-Brabant, warning of gusts up to 95 kilometers per hour.

The wind should die down during the course of the morning in most places, but the code yellow warning will apply in Noord-Holland, the Wadden area, Groningen, Friesland, and Flevoland until at least 3:00 p.m.

Schiphol Airport reported 89 delayed and 35 canceled arrivals for Wednesday and nine delayed and 29 canceled departures. Many of the cancellations are KLM flights. The airline tends to cancel shorter flights to and from other European destinations ahead of stormy weather to give travelers quick certainty and itself more wiggle room.

The Rijkswaterstaat and ANWB also warned that the strong winds could make for difficult driving conditions. By 7:35 a.m., the ANWB reported 41 traffic jams covering 218 kilometers of Dutch roads.

The strong winds caused damage in various places overnight, NOS reports. In Oestgeest, a fallen tree damaged two cars. In The Hague, the fire department had to take down a piece of roof that blew loose on Elandstraat. In Leiden, blocks of Styrofoam blew off a roof and damaged several cars. Damage reports also came from Vijfhuizen in Noord-Holland and Deventer, among other places.

Jocelyn is the third storm in the Netherlands so far this year and the fourth this winter. Storm Isha hit earlier this week, storm Henk on January 2, and storm Pia on December 21.

Warmest January 23

Tuesday was the warmest January 23 ever measured in the Netherlands. Temperatures climbed to 13.4 degrees in De Bilt last night, breaking the old record of 12.0 degrees measured in 1971. The highest temperature measured was 13.7 degrees in Gilze-Rijen in Noord-Brabant.

“Due to climate change, cold winter weather is becoming increasingly rare in our country,” Weeronline said. “Nowadays, almost no cold records are broken during the winter months.” The last cold record broken in De Bilt in the month of January was in 1997, while many of the January heat records are from recent years.

So far this century, there have been nine times more heat records than cold records in the Netherlands.