KNMI, the Royal Dutch meteorological institute, has issued a code orange weather warning for tomorrow, Thursday 18 January, because of an expected storm front. As a precaution, Dutch airline KLM has cancelled over 200 flights. More flights, including non-KLM flights, may be cancelled later today and/or tomorrow. Train track operator ProRail is taking precautions as well.
Wind gusts of up to 130km per hour are expected on the west coast of the country. According to meteorologist Diana Woei of Weerplaza, tomorrow’s storm will be more intense than the storm of January 3: “The location of the storm is different. Then, the area that was most affected was the Wadden area. Tomorrow, the west coast of the Netherlands, and beyond, will be affected.” The storm is expected to wreak the most havoc between 9am and 2pm.
Dutch airline KLM has cancelled 220 flights from and to Amsterdam Schiphol, since its runway capacity will be limited. “The heavy wind will also make it impossible to continue ground handling operations between 10:00 and 12:00 hours,” KLM wrote in a statement. Travellers whose flight was cancelled will be informed and their ticket will be rebooked.
At this moment, Schiphol has not had any reports of flight cancellations by other airlines. However, this is still possible. If you are travelling through Schiphol tomorrow, it is advised to keep yourself up to date on the situation by checking either KLM.com or Schiphol.nl.
Track operator ProRail is taking the necessary precautions: “We have extra teams on hand. Fallen trees and broken branches can cause problems and dangerous situations when overhead wires are hit,” says ProRail spokesman Jaap Eikelboom, “Therefore, instead of every 15 minutes, a lot of trains will depart every 30 minutes.”
If you have to take public transport tomorrow, make sure you check the NS travel app first to see if your train has been cancelled or has been delayed.