Of course, William Huizinga, meteorologist at Buienradar, has also seen all the messages on social media about the approaching cold. “I always take a more down-to-earth view,” he says.
Because, says the weatherman, one day you get stories that it will be ‘thick winter’. “And the other day you have to say, ‘Oh, no, not.’ Then you lose your credibility.”
This morning the uncertainty was still too great to make a statement. The weatherman suggested waiting for the well-known ‘plume’, the graph with the calculation of 50 weather models.
‘We are gradually going along with it’
The redeeming word comes around 11 a.m. “We are gradually going along with it,” says Huizinga carefully, when he has studied the latest figures.
“The calculations are becoming more and more aligned. Where the American and European models used to be quite apart, they are getting closer to each other. The cold is coming back, that is clear.”
Fellow weatherman Maurice Middendorp is also looking forward to it:
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Especially the north
At the moment, the soft air has ‘fairly conquered the Netherlands’, says the meteorologist. At about ten degrees, you don’t think about winter at all, but the cold air has not completely disappeared. It has remained just north of our country, says the weatherman.
We owe that soft air to the wind from the south. “It now seems reasonably certain that we will lose that southerly wind this weekend. From the north-northeast, the cold air will descend again. From the weekend, especially the north of the country will have to deal with this.” In the rest of the country it is less cold.
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20 inches of snow
The most remarkable thing that seems to be coming now is the snow, says Huizinga. “In the night from Saturday to Sunday, a nice snow cover can still come locally. 20 centimeters of snow is expected in the north and east on Sunday afternoon, in some places even more.”
Huizinga hastens to say: we will not see those beautiful winter pictures everywhere. “The dichotomy that we have been dealing with in our country for a while is becoming even sharper.”
Wet snow in the south
While the north and east will also freeze during the day on Sunday, in the south it will remain above zero. In the extreme south it may even reach 4 degrees. At the beginning of next week, this division will remain the same, Huizinga expects.
A beautiful white Brabant landscape is therefore probably not there. “The precipitation there will come in the form of rain and sleet. Not the winter fun we’ll have in the North and East.”
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Viking skating factory: ‘very exciting’
“We have been prepared for a while,” says a spokesman for skating factory Viking. “We’re really looking forward to it. It’s very exciting, we are following the weather here a little bit, we have seen with fear and trembling all the systems above the North Pole, and we hope it will come our way. When it gets cold. , then the question is of course how long. But we think we can skate in the north. “
Viking produces in the summer period, sales are in the winter. Of course, sales go fast when it is cold. “But it hasn’t been for a while. Now it could just happen and then you have to be ready. Some stores are already prepared.”
Not all courts can be used in full due to corona. “But it is of course an ideal sport, because you are outside, it is cold and everyone can do their own thing.”
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Okay, back to the north and east. Can you skate there next week? “There is actually not much to say about that. If you get snow, it is not a good start for ice. That is the tricky part.”
There are, however, several ice days in prospect. From Sunday to Wednesday it stays below zero at night and during the day.
‘The wind makes it icy and icy cold’
So for snow fun you have to go north. Although you must feel like it. “There is also a lot of wind calculated on Sunday, there are even signs of stormy wind. That means that it feels really icy and icy cold.”
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