When I arrived in Amsterdam at the end of April, everyone told me that the weather was incredibly good this year. The Dutch told me that I really needed to wait and see, the expats just laughed when I talked about the weather...
On Thursday, I found out what they meant. From about 10am until early Friday morning it rained. I don't mean it was raining on and off, I mean just-shy-of-a-thunderstorm rain all day long. And I was on my bike to work that day. At least I managed to get to work without getting drowned...dinner on Thursday night was a different story. I arrived at my friend's house and immediately used her hairdryer because I might as well have just gotten out of the shower.
Turns out that July and October are the months that Amsterdam gets the most rain (more than 3 inches) and gets an average of 33 inches per year. In official terms Amsterdam has a rating of Cfb on the Köppen climate classification scale or a "Maritime Temperate" climate. This breaks down as follows:
- C for have an average high of above 10 °C/50 °F in the warmest months and a coldest month average of around 0°C/32 °F.
- f for significant precipitation in all seasons
- b for the warmest month averaging below 22 °C/72 °F, but with at least 4 months averaging above 10 °C
Here are some other places that similar weather to Amsterdam - a bit of advice if you go to any of these places, bring an umbrella and a jacket with a good hood.
To compare, North Carolina is a Cfa climate which is classified as "Humid subtropical" climate, which just differs in that the warmest months average over 22°C. How that translates to daily life for me? I get to laugh when people here complain about humidity.
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