The Hague weather, the wind, and what to own because of it

It is not actually raining very often.

KNMI’s 1991 to 2020 figures for Hoek van Holland, the coastal station closest to this stretch of shore, record 635.8 hours of precipitation a year, which is 7.3% of the time.

The rest of the year, 93% of it, is dry.

What makes the Dutch climate feel relentless is not the quantity but the distribution: 871.8 millimetres spread across a great many small events, arriving sideways.

You will be rained on frequently and soaked rarely, and every piece of clothing advice below follows from that.

The wind is the real climate

This is the number that matters and almost nobody quotes it.

Mean annual wind speed at Hoek van Holland is 7.3 metres per second.

At Rotterdam, fifteen kilometres inland, it is 4.4.

The coast is not a bit windier than the interior.

It is in a different category.

Look at what that does to the days.

On the coast, 152.5 days a year record an hourly mean of at least force 6 on the Beaufort scale.

At Rotterdam the same figure is 34.7.

Force 7 or more: 59 days on the coast, 7.2 inland.

Gusts of 21 metres per second or higher occur on 37.3 days a year at Hoek van Holland and 13.7 at Rotterdam.

January is the worst of it, averaging 8.4 metres per second, and December is barely better at 8.2.

The calm months are July and August at 6.5.

Note that even the calmest month on this coast is windier than the annual average fifteen kilometres inland.

What that does to a bike ride

It makes direction matter more than distance, which is the single most useful thing to know about cycling here.

The prevailing wind is southwesterly, off the sea.

Riding out to Scheveningen or Kijkduin on a normal day is a pleasant twenty minutes.

Riding back into a force 5 on the same route is a different activity: you are pedalling continuously, in a low gear, on flat ground, and arriving warm.

On a genuinely windy day, which is roughly one day in two on this coast, the return leg can take half as long again.

Three consequences.

Check the wind direction before you plan a round trip, the way people elsewhere check for hills.

Do the outward leg into the wind if you can, so the tired half is the easy one.

And if you cycle to the beach and the forecast turns, remember that bikes are not allowed on the trams at all, so there is no bail-out option.

This is also the strongest argument for an electric bike in a city with no hills, and the honest reason many Hague households own one.

It is covered in the bike article, along with why the theft risk still gives you pause.

What to own

An umbrella is not weatherproofing here, it is a liability.

Force 6 turns it inside out and force 7 takes it out of your hand.

On the coast that is a hundred and fifty days a year.

Locals carry them in the city centre where buildings give shelter and abandon them entirely near the water.

What works is a proper waterproof with a hood that stays on, ideally with a drawcord, cut long enough to cover you on a bike.

Add waterproof trousers if you commute by bike, which look ridiculous and are worn by everyone including people in suits, because the alternative is arriving with soaked thighs.

Then the small things that are not obvious.

Mudguards and a chain guard on the bike, which Dutch city bikes have as standard and imported sports bikes do not.

Lights that are built in, because winter afternoons here are dark by half past four.

Shoes you do not mind getting wet, because you will be outside more than you expect.

And a windproof layer rather than a thick one: at 4 degrees with an 8 metre per second wind off the sea, wind resistance beats insulation.

The compensation: light

The coast is measurably sunnier than inland.

Hoek van Holland records 1,886.5 sunshine hours a year against 1,752.0 at Rotterdam, a difference of well over a hundred hours, because the sea suppresses the cloud that forms over land.

It is also gentler at both ends of the scale.

Mean annual temperature on the coast is 11.0 degrees, with January averaging a maximum of 6.5 and a minimum of 2.3, and July averaging 21.5 and 14.5.

Hard frost is uncommon and genuine heat is rare: Hoek van Holland records around 17 days a year at 25 degrees or above, where Rotterdam gets around 23.

The sea takes the edge off both.

The practical meaning is that this is a climate of very few extremes and a great deal of grey, and the thing that gets to people in February is the light rather than the cold.

Having somewhere to go on a bad day matters more here than a good coat does.

Storms, and what the colours mean

KNMI issues warnings in three colours.

Code yellow goes out for gusts above roughly 75 kilometres per hour and means be alert.

Code orange comes in above roughly 100 and means adjust your plans, damage is likely.

Code red is reserved for weather severe enough to be socially disruptive, and the advice with it is to stay indoors.

In an average autumn and winter this city sees several yellows and occasionally an orange.

What actually happens: trees come down, trams are diverted, and the beach pavilions board up.

The dunes take the worst of it, which is exactly what they are for.

Two habits worth adopting.

Bring in anything loose on a balcony before a warned storm, because a plant pot from the fourth floor is a serious matter.

And check HTM’s diversion page rather than assuming your line is running, because wind damage on this network is a routine cause of disruption rather than an exceptional one.

Living with it rather than around it

The Dutch response to this climate is not to wait for better weather, because a climate that is dry 93% of the time and grey most of it never produces a decisive day.

People go out in it.

Beach cafes at Scheveningen stay open through the winter; the terraces put out blankets; children cycle to school in horizontal rain in fluorescent capes.

The mistake newcomers make is treating each grey day as a day to postpone something.

Six weeks of that and it is February and you have not been anywhere.

The people who settle here well are the ones who bought the jacket in the first month and then stopped consulting the forecast.

One genuine consolation, and it is the reason people live in this part of the city at all: an onshore wind means clean air and a sky that changes by the hour.

The light over the North Sea in late afternoon is the thing every Dutch painter kept trying to get down, and you get it for free about four minutes’ walk from the boulevard.

Sources

• KNMI, Hoek van Holland langjarige gemiddelden 1991-2020 (station 330): mean annual temperature 11.0 degrees with mean minimum 8.0 and mean maximum 14.2, January mean maximum 6.5 and mean minimum 2.3, July mean maximum 21.5 and mean minimum 14.5, annual precipitation 871.8 mm falling over 635.8 hours or 7.3% of the time, 1,886.5 sunshine hours, mean annual wind speed 7.3 m/s, monthly mean wind of 8.4 m/s in January, 8.2 in December and 6.5 in July and August, 152.5 days a year with an hourly mean wind of at least 6 Beaufort, 59.0 days at 7 Beaufort or more, 13.2 at 8 or more, and gusts of 21 m/s or above on 37.3 days and 28 m/s or above on 3.5 days
• KNMI, Rotterdam langjarige gemiddelden 1991-2020 (station 344): mean annual temperature 10.7 degrees, annual precipitation 881.5 mm, 1,752.0 sunshine hours, mean annual wind speed 4.4 m/s, 34.7 days a year with an hourly mean wind of at least 6 Beaufort, 7.2 days at 7 or more, and gusts of 21 m/s or above on 13.7 days
• KNMI, days at or above 25 degrees in the same tables: approximately 17 a year at Hoek van Holland against approximately 23 at Rotterdam
• KNMI, waarschuwingen and windstoten: three warning colours, code yellow from gusts of about 75 km/h meaning be alert, code orange from about 100 km/h meaning a high chance of dangerous weather and damage, and code red reserved for weather with socially disruptive consequences with advice to stay indoors
• KNMI climate description of the Netherlands: prevailing southwesterly winds