Media Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau
Date Friday 13 September 2024
It is increasingly raining exceptionally hard locally in the Netherlands. This year through July, there were eight days on which at least 50 millimetres of rain fell locally. That is twice as many days as normal, according to ANP research based on KNMI figures.
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It is increasingly raining exceptionally hard locally in the Netherlands. This year through July, there were eight days on which at least 50 millimetres of rain fell locally. That is twice as many days as normal, according to research by the ANP based on KNMI figures.
If on one day at least 50 millimetres of rain is measured locally at one of the precipitation stations, meteorologists call it a day of heavy rainfall. In recent years, this has been happening more and more often. In the 70s, 80s and 90s, there were still around three days of exceptionally heavy rain on average. Nowadays, there are almost six on average. In 2021, a new record was measured with extreme rainfall on 13 days.
May so far had the most days with locally large showers. The day with the most heavy rainfall was 22 May. At that time, an average of 66 millimetres of rain fell locally at eight precipitation stations. Normally, around 55 millimetres fell in the whole month of May.
"The Netherlands has become warmer in recent decades. Warmer air can contain more moisture, which is why more rain now falls from a shower than before," explains KNMI climate expert Peter Siegmund. "According to KNMI research, the number of heavy showers will continue to increase in the future."
In nine of the 12 provinces, very heavy rain fell in at least one place in 24 hours this year. In Noord-Holland, Groningen and Noord-Brabant, exceptionally heavy rain was even measured in seven and six different places respectively.
In the provinces of Utrecht, Flevoland and Friesland, not a single day of heavy rainfall occurred so far. Yet it is possible that these provinces did experience downpours, Siegmund argues. "KNMI measures precipitation at over three hundred locations across the country, but downpours are sometimes so localised that they are not always detected by this network."
For this study, the ANP analysed historical data from 240 KNMI precipitation stations to find out how many days of heavy precipitation occur annually. This involved looking at the first seven months of each year between 1951 and 2024.
