Small anti-lockdown protest outside the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
AMSTERDAM--The Netherlands woke up to wintry scenes on Sunday, with a layer of snow covering most of the country apart from the deep south and north.
The snow and strong winds were expected to continue for most of the day, but it could be well into evening before the wintry conditions would stop in the north, weather forecasters said.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management’s Rijkswaterstaat roads authority has sprayed 17 million kilos of salt on the roads since Saturday evening in an effort to keep them clear. Nevertheless, there have been a string of accidents due to the difficult conditions, and the slip lane between the A15 and the A4 motorways was closed for a time after a truck jack-knifed.
The ANWB motoring organisation advised travellers to stay at home unless their journeys were absolutely necessary.
Problems on the railways led to cancellation of all trains until today, Monday. A spokesman for rail operator Prorail said the blizzard was making it difficult to fix problems. “We are trying to release the points from the snow, but as soon as they are clear, they are covered up again,” one railway engineer said. In Amsterdam, all public transport services have been cancelled.
Eindhoven Airport was also closed and the handful of incoming flights expected were being diverted to the German city Cologne. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport recommended that travellers check with their airline, and warned there were delays.
Sunday was the first official “ice day” in the Netherlands for 746 days, meaning the temperature remained below zero degrees Celsius for a 24-hour period, according to weather bureau Weerplaza. The last time it froze for a full day at the De Bilt weather station was on January 24, 2019.
Little change is expected in the coming days. According to Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI, the temperature will remain below zero until Saturday at least, and there is a 50-per-cent chance the freeze will continue into next week.
Primary schools in the Dutch capital Amsterdam, which were set to reopen today, will also stay shut because of the wintry conditions. There was also a small anti-lockdown protest in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon, where demonstrators intermingled with people taking advantage of the sloping roof of a supermarket to enjoy the snow.
Most of the snow fell over central parts of the Netherlands, with relatively little snowfall in the north and south. Some villages in the province Gelderland, which had more snow than the rest of the country, have even been cut off after roads became impassable, Weerplaza reported.
People hoping to order food online will be disappointed. Food delivery service Thuisbezorgd has said it will only operate in Maastricht, where there is just a light sprinkling of snow, while Deliveroo and Uber Eats have cancelled all deliveries.
