First half of the summer cooler and wetter than average

The Netherlands hasn’t had optimal summer weather so far this year. The first half of the summer was cooler and wetter than typical, Weeronline reported on Tuesday.

The average temperature so far this summer is 16.0 degrees, while 16.6 degrees is typical for the time of year. June was cooler than usual, with an average temperature of 15.8 degrees compared to the normal 16.4 degrees. July has also been fairly cool, with an average temperature of 16.4 degrees compared to the normal 17.7 degrees. During the first week of July, temperatures remained below 20 degrees on five out of the seven days.

In total, the Netherlands has had 19 warm days - with maximums above 20 degrees at the national weather station in De Bilt. Typically, the first half of summer has 26 warm days. There have been five summer days, with maximums over 25, compared to the normal nine. And there has been exactly one tropical day (maximum over 30 degrees). On June 26, the maximum in De Bilt climbed to 30.2 degrees.

The first half of summer was also very wet, getting 143 mm of rainfall against the typical 107 mm. June was slightly too dry, getting 62 instead of 66 mm of rain. But the soaking wet first half of July more than made up for it. An average of 81 mm of rain fell across the country from July 1 to 15. July usually gets 79 mm of rain for the entire month.

Despite the wetter-than-usual conditions, the first half of summer still managed to get about the typical amount of sunshine. The country has had 314 hours of sunshine so far this summer, compared to the usual 316 hours. June had 227 hours of sunshine, and July has had 89 hours so far.