Warmest June night ever as events cancelled, wildfire risk

The Netherlands has had its warmest June night since records began, and the weather service KNMI said the night ahead could again be the warmest ever recorded, as the heatwave pushes daytime temperatures towards 40°.

The temperature overnight into Thursday did not fall below 22.4° at Woensdrecht in Noord-Brabant, a national record for June. The previous mark was 21.9°, set in Maastricht on June 25, 2019.

Daytime temperatures were forecast to reach 29° in the north and 36° in the south on Thursday, rising to 38° locally in Limburg. Friday is expected to be even hotter, between 34° and 39°, with parts of Limburg possibly touching 40°. Westerly winds, cooler air and a chance of thunderstorms should arrive over the weekend.

Hotter night ahead
The KNMI expects the coming night to be even hotter, with the low at the De Bilt weather station not dropping beneath 24°, near the hottest nighttime temperature ever recorded in July 2018. Around Maastricht, the temperature could beat that record, above 25°.

A code orange heat warning from the KNMI covers most of the country and extends to the three northern provinces from Friday, with only the Wadden Islands left out.

Across the border, Belgium’s weather service KMI has issued a code red – its highest heat warning – for Friday in the provinces of Liège and Limburg, where forecasters expect 40°. Primary schools in the Netherlands have cut their hours this week as classrooms overheat.

Events cancelled, wildfire risks
The music festival Defqon.1 in Biddinghuizen will admit only weekend-ticket holders on Friday and Saturday, turning away everyone with a day ticket for either day.
The decision was made with the local council and emergency service and will drop attendance by around 15,000 people a day.

Train operator NS is running a reduced timetable until Friday, and several events have been called off outright. Alkmaar cancelled its weekly cheese market for Friday, and the national under-18 and under-20 athletics championships in Utrecht, the TT Night Ride in Assen and the Stadsloop road race in Appingedam will not go ahead.

The fire service has raised the wildfire risk to its second-highest level in 16 of the country’s 25 safety regions.

The KNMI has said heatwaves that once arrived about once a decade now come roughly every three years and run more than a degree hotter, and that without global warming this week would not have turned so hot.