Just as we thought we were getting into the high twenties that characterise summer temperatures in the Netherlands, the weather decided to spring a trick on us. Last week there were a series of storms over two days, which caused damage and flooding throughout the Netherlands. The damage led to an unexpected discovery too, when police officers discovered a massive cocaine lab in a barn in Zeeland that was damaged by a falling tree.
In Amsterdam, people woke up on Thursday morning to big trees that had been torn from their roots due to the storm’s ferocity the previous evening. As I walked along the Herengracht after work that same day, I saw sawn-up tree trunks lain in piles.
It’s quite a shame, really, since these are mature trees. Even if a replacement tree(ling) were planted, it wouldn’t grow to a similar height within a few years. I’m interested in how the municipality deals with this.
Where some saw damage, others saw opportunity. I saw some teenagers walking along the length of a fallen trunk and taking selfies. The tree had also fallen on a boat, so I hope the latter hasn’t sustained any substantial damage. It doesn’t look like it from the photo, though.
The weather patterns this time of year are nothing short of confusing. Last year’s summer was very warm and dry, but what we have this year is plenty of rain and wind. What’s confusing about this is that, just a week ago, the weather was above 20 degrees and sunny.
I don’t know what to expect from the weather. Last Friday, the skies were so grey in the morning that if I’d made a photo of the clouds I would’ve easily been able to claim that the photo was made in February. The clouds were that grey – in June.
I committed a silly mistake while making these photos in that my camera was set to JPEG only even though I shoot in RAW. I was somewhat miffed that I hadn’t checked my settings but decided to publish them here anyway – after making some minor adjustments. Fortunately the photos were also already processed via the in-camera settings, which made them more presentable.
