Hailstorms, snow, strong winds and lots of rain: we’ve seen it all come by lately. But the spring sun shines through its absence. Where is the spring weather?
“Unfortunately, the weather we have now is very normal,” says a meteorologist from Weerplaza in conversation with NU.nl. Also in the last days of March and even in April there is a chance of wintry weather.
But we may now crave warmth and sun even more than usual, he says. “Since the autumn we have not had stable weather and that is remarkable. It was very often cold and changeable and we are tired of that.”
However, we still have to get used to the changing weather. In the Netherlands we often have to deal with longer periods of the same weather type. “That is part of the Dutch climate,” says the weatherman.
Enjoying a drink on a terrace under a spring sun is not possible for the time being. It is slowly warming up a bit, but it continues to rain a lot with a chance of hail and wet snow here and there.
We were spoiled with lots of sunshine in March last year
With those expected higher temperatures, we are already getting closer to the average temperature for this time of year. Normally it is 12 to 13 degrees, but now it is a lot colder at 7 degrees.
This month the sun also shone a lot less than usual: about 115 hours. That is a big contrast to March last year, when the sun shone every day.
We are therefore spoiled, says the meteorologist. “Last year around this time the weather was great.” March then had no less than 250 hours of sunshine, while according to the KNMI there are normally 145. It was also exceptionally dry then: a total of 14 millimeters of rain fell, where it is normally 53 millimeters.
That sounds positive, but that is bad news for the warming climate. “Even in warm periods, the weather is upset,” says the weatherman.
Spring is not coming in large parts of Europe
Spring has not yet arrived elsewhere in Europe either. In the Swiss and Austrian Alps there are heavy snow showers and the temperature drops sharply. On Friday it was still 20 degrees, but on Monday the temperature was just above freezing.
This is good news for late winter sports enthusiasts. 20 to 40 centimeters of snow can fall and because it gets colder, the snow will stay for a while. But the real winter weather will be short-lived in the ski area. From next weekend it will again be changeable weather with a chance of rain and wind.
For early summer temperatures you have to be further south in Europe. In Spain the temperatures fluctuate around 20 degrees and the weather is also nice in many places in Italy.
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