Rain in the Netherlands is nothing special. But the torrents of rain that fell this week were exceptional. In some parts of the country, more rain fell in one day than usually falls in the whole month of August. In some places, more than 60 millimetres fell.
The rain caused a lot of inconvenience; streets were flooded, parts of the motorways had to be closed, cellars filled up with water, and the fire brigade was inundated with calls.
The huge deluge caused an unprecedented amount of damage. Insurers have been flooded with claims. They estimate the damage many amount to as much as four million euros.
Climate change
The link to global warming is quickly made of course. After all, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report predicted more and more extreme weather.
Jeroen Aerts, professor of climate change and flood risk, does not think you can just put the downpours of the last couple of days down to climate change. But the general weather pattern does match various extreme types of weather (heavy rainfall as well as extreme droughts) expected in the future as a result of climate change.
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Moaning about rain is still safe....no controversies unlike other topics...;)...
Dutch people moan about everything. If it's not the new President of Suriname, then they find some fault with some other country. Moan, moan and moan about everyone and everything.
Your response tells me you are a Dutch person!
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
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