Heavy storms and strong winds are expected to batter parts of the Netherlands on Wednesday night, ahead of what is set to be the hottest day of the year so far.

The KNMI has issued a code yellow weather warning for the western half of the country on Wednesday evening because of the pending storms, which first moved into northern France in the afternoon.

On Thursday morning the storms will clear and it will be sunny in many places, reaching up to 31 degrees in the south of the country. That would make it the hottest day of the year so far.

However, the high temperatures combined with heavy humidity may well lead to new storms on Thursday evening, weather forecasters say.