Our favourite rainy country is facing skyrocketing temperatures this week when a heatwave passes through Europe. It comes less than one month after a similar heatwave saw temperatures in neighbouring France reach as high as 46°C.
“Don’t come to the Netherlands,” they said. “It will rain the whole time you’re there!” they said. “Just kidding!” they said. “You’ll actually sweat your clogs off during summer!” they said.
Truth be told, temperatures are going to rise this week. Not in the nice summer way, either, but in the “oh my god, why don’t Dutch people have pools” way.
How hot is it going to be?
Weather service Buienradar are predicting temperatures will steadily increase, adding a few degrees each day. Limburg, in the southeast, is thought to be the worst affected with predictions of 39 or 40 degrees on Thursday.
Goedemorgen. Vandaag is het (vrij) zonnig met eerst nog sluierbewolking. De meeste bewolking bevindt zich eerst in het noorden. Het wordt vanmiddag 23 tot 29 graden. De komende dagen wordt het LOEIHEET en staan records onder druk! https://t.co/gADRmAQLUA pic.twitter.com/hKJ7r0ocD0
— Buienradar (@BuienRadarNL) July 22, 2019
Sidenote: what is loeiheet? Loei is the sound that cow makes (a Dutch version of ‘moo’) but in this context it really just means ‘very,’ ‘extremely,’ or ‘super’ combined with heet (hot). Crazy hot! Why is it moo-hot? Yeah, no Dutchies really know. Do you? Let us know below!
Today we will see comfortable temperatures in the high 20’s throughout most of the country, but the Tuesday through Thursday things will really heat up.
Are we heading for a record-breaking attempt?
Guys, I’ve gotta be honest: you know we’re in for a bad time when Buinradar meteorologists start using double exclamation marks:
If you think you can enjoy a reprieve in the evening, don’t. Tropical nights are expected with the evenings still hanging around the 20°C mark.
The ice-cream melting temperatures have a high chance of breaking the 74-year-old Dutch record for the hottest day in history. We, for one, are happy to let that record grow even older – dankjewel!
How are you preparing to face the summer heat? Any tips or tricks for keeping cool in the lowlands? Let us know in the comments below!
Feature Image: Geralt on Pexels
I having a sealing ventilator, who do blow well, even better then a airco who is nice in bedroom, I do sleep in top of house under the roof, that shall be changed in livingroom beneath that ventilator.
Here’s my wild guess for why it’s moo-hot:
I’ve heard “loeizwaar” a lot more than “loeiheet”, so I think it’s just using the prefix it’s not supposed to first.
In the context of zwaar (heavy), loei might come from looi or, as it’s called today: lood (lead) which would make for leadheavy.
Add a couple generations of Dutchies mixing everything up (“klopt als een bus” is another solid example of this) and we’ve got loeiheet!