Storm warnings shortened; Still expected to cause nightmare evening rush hour

The meteorological institute KNMI shortened the code yellow thunderstorm warnings covering most of the Netherlands. Stormy weather already started in the Limburg, but will only spread to the center and north later this afternoon, and should mostly leave the country by midnight. The bad weather is expected to cause a heavy evening rush hour, with traffic starting to build up early in the afternoon.

The Friday evening rush hour already starts about an hour earlier than the rest of the week, but the weather is expected to complicate matters, said Dutch infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat. “The predicted rain showers and hail, in combination with incidents on the road, can cause additional traffic congestion.”

The traffic might not be as bad as Tuesday night, which was the worst evening rush hour this year. Still, drivers can expect about 500 kilometers of traffic jams on the highways as people race home to beat the weather ahead of the weekend.

The travelers organization ANWB also warned that Friday evening would have a heavy evening rush hour. “The evening rush hour’s first traffic jams will appear early Friday afternoon already,” the ANWB said. “Downpours and thunderstorms will cause extra travel time.” Traffic around Amsterdam will be extra bad due to several concerts happening in the capital tonight.

Schiphol reported a total of 20 canceled flights scattered throughout the day - 10 arrivals and 10 departures. The cancellations are mostly KLM round trip pairs, two British Airways flights to London were scrapped in each direction, and one Bulgaria Air flight from Sofia and another to Sofia were also listed as cancelled. Around 31 departures were delayed, mostly in the morning. The airport also reported 30 delayed arrivals scattered throughout the day. Some of the arrivals were delayed by several hours.

NS didn’t report any weather-related disruptions on the track on Friday morning. Buses instead of trains are running between Maastricht Randwyck and Visé due to flooding. This disruption, which increases travel time by 30 minutes, will last until at least June 3. No sprinters are running between Dieren and Zupthen due to a switch failure. And fewer trains are running between Oldenzaal and Bad Bentheim due to material issues.

According to the KNMI, Friday’s storms may be accompanied by hail and heavy downpours, with 20 to 40 millimeters of rain falling in an hour in some places. “Local flooding is possible. Traffic must take into account that roads and tunnels could be flooded,” the meteorological institute said.

At 8:00 a.m., the KNMI had storm warnings in place for the entire country. But by 8:30 a.m., the warnings were lifted for Noord-Brabant, Zeeland, and Zuid-Holland. The storms started in Limburg in the morning. This afternoon and evening, thunderstorms will occur in the northern half of the country.

When the KNMI first warned about these thunderstorms on Thursday, it expected the storms to spread across the country by early Friday afternoon and last until late Saturday afternoon.

Maximums on Friday will climb to around 20 degrees, and there is some room for sunshine when it’s not storming. Saturday will start out cloudy and rainy, with more room for sunshine in the afternoon. Maximums will climb to around 18 degrees, and there may be more showers in the late afternoon and evening.

Storm warnings by region for Friday