Floriane officially the third winter storm this season, second storm of 2025
Storm Floriane brought wind gusts peaking at 108 kilometers per hour so far on Monday, with nearly all of the Netherlands experienced gusts of at least 80 kilometers per hour. Floriane became the second storm already this year, and the third winter storm this season, with the country's North Sea shore battered by extreme winds most of the afternoon.
The peak gust of 108 km/h was measured at Hoek van Holland, but the weather station in IJmuiden also recorded a gust of 105 km/h. The Marker Wadden nature reserve also saw a swift gust of 104 km/h. The stiffest winds were not only measured in Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and Zeeland, but also the central and northern region of the country saw maximum wind speeds above 90 kilometers per hour.
In fact, gusts of 90 to 95 km/h were still impacting the Wadden Islands of Texel and Vlieland between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. While the entire country was under a Code Yellow weather warning for most of the afternoon, the alert was lifted everywhere except the Wadden Sea region and Friesland. Those two areas can still expect gusts of up to 90 km/h through 11 p.m.
Floriane earned its designation as a storm in the Netherlands between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., according to data from meteorological office KNMI and weather website WeerOnline. The KNMI defines an official storm as one where the average sustained wind speed at at least one of its stations reaches wind force 9 for a full 60-minute period beginning at the top of any given hour.
This happened at the IJmuiden station on Monday afternoon. Wind force 9 on the Beaufort Scale ranges from 75 to 88 km/h, a measurement which was also reached in western Zeeland, IJmuiden, the Marker Wadden, Texel and Vlieland, as of 7 p.m.
Storms also hit the Netherlands on New Year's Day and on Dec. 6. The previous winter season of 2023-2024 saw four official winter storms, including Pia on Dec. 21, Henk on Jan. 2, Isha on Jan. 22, and Jocelyn on Jan. 24.
There were no winter storms during the previous season, but six diffrent storms struck during the winter of 2021-2022, according to WeerOnline.
