Eighth tropical night follows record heat; thunderstorms possible on Saturday
The Netherlands recorded its eighth regional tropical night of the year in the night from Friday to Saturday. This followed a day of extreme heat that set a new temperature record for 14 August, with Westdorpe reaching 34.8 degrees Celcius and De Bilt 32.5 degrees.
A tropical night occurs when the temperature does not fall below 20 degrees for 24 hours, according to Weeronline. A tropical day occurs when the temperature reaches 30 degrees or higher.
On Saturday the Netherlands is waking up to code yellow in Gelderland, Noord-Brabant, Limburg, and Overijssel. The warning remains until at least Sunday, KNMI reports. Temperatures on Saturday will range from around 20 degrees in the north to 30–33 degrees in Zuid-Limburg, with 25–28 degrees expected in Gelderland and Overijssel.
Thunderstorms are possible in the northwest in the morning, but the afternoon is mostly dry with sunshine. On Sunday it stays mostly dry with a mix of clouds and sun, and temperatures reach about 20 degrees at the coast, 23 degrees in the center, and 25–26 degrees in the east and far southeast.
In Vlissingen the temperature stayed at or above 20.9 degrees for 24 hours. Maastricht recorded a minimum of 20.4 degrees.
On Friday, Westdorpe reached 34.8 degrees and Gilze-Rijen 34.4 degrees by 12:30. Both broke the previous 14 August record of 34.2 degrees from 2025. In De Bilt the temperature rose to 32.5 degrees, setting a new official date record. Temperatures were expected to climb further, possibly to 37 degrees in some areas.
Friday’s heat marked the 11th daily heat record of 2026. Since 2000, heat records have occurred nine times more often than cold records. The last daily cold record was set on 18 September 2022.
The first tropical night of this year was measured in the night of 24–25 June, when Vlissingen did not cool below 22 degrees. The highest minimum temperature ever recorded during a tropical night was 24.4 degrees in Deelen in July 2018. Since 1901 the average has been 1.3 tropical nights per year. An official national tropical night (in De Bilt) last occurred in 2020.