Weather forcast in the Netherlands

Weather in the Netherlands is temperate; marine; cool summers and mild winters. This past summer since we first came in early June, I don't remember any day that the temperature is over 30 Centigrade. Most of the time I have been trying to wrap myself with almost all available thick clothes I brought before our shipment arrived. Being close to the sea, wind is quite common, and the cold wind, sometimes with rain clouds, can come from any direction. My knowledge of cold air always comes from the northwest, based on experiences living in China and US, is apparently old.

Water is the soul of the Netherlands. The Netherlands history is the history of fighting with the sea water. It is well known that around 50% of the land is below the sea level. The land was maintained through a well established system of 'polders, dikes, and windmills'. There is this expression: "God created the world with the exception of Holland. This was done by the Dutch themselves".

In the every day life, rain water became also part of the life. In other places, we most of the time just need to check out the weather forecast in the morning and get ready with proper clothes. Here, it is rather by hours. We were soon informed a website www.buienradar.nl , a place you can have a watch on the movement of rain clouds. You can foresee around two hours time whether there is rain clouds coming, or it is totally left this region. Morning and afternoon clouds can be totally different. You'd better check out whenever you need to have a short trip somewhere else. Otherwise, keep an umbrella with you all the time. If you bikes, you might have a rain jacket with you all the time. Mr. Awaara has a rain proof pant in his bag all the time. Rain protection for shoes is also in the store.

People have thought about all kinds of ways to deal with the unpredictable rain falls. Check out the picture in this post. It was in the Oranje street corner, the place we first lived in. The clothes need to get dry, and rain might come. It might be still faster to dry up than staying inside the house even there is the risk of getting wet outside.

However, the rain water is also useful. We saw people set up some container in the garden to collect rain water. I don't think here the garden needs regular watering at all, since the rain is very often. When we moved here, there was a carpet in the living room which was dirty. The landlady spread it in the balcony railing and gave me some liquid detergent to spray on it once in a while. She told me, the rest of the work, the sun and the rain will take care of it.