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What kind of weather can you expect when you visit Amsterdam? Dutch people usually complain about the weather, is it really that bad or do Dutch people just like to exagerate? It can be said making forecasts for the Dutch weather is rather complex, so let me introduce you to some basic information about the Dutch seasons, so you will have an idea about what you can expect. Different types of weather also suggest different activities within the city.

In this introductions, I will disregard the seasons spring and autumn, as those can basically be seen as transitional seasons between the more characteristic summer and winter. In Holland we have an 'ocean-climate', which means we have:

• Relatively warm winters, and:
• Relatively wet summers

Winters

Although some old paintings suggest the Dutch winters are covered in snow, actual snow is pretty rare. A Dutch ice-skating association, which wants to organize an outdoor race in the Northern province of Friesland, can only see their dream come true once in about ten years. The Dutch weather simply isn't cold enough. Another dream would be a white Christmas: the last one occured in 1981. In the last 100 years, we have only had a white Christmas for 6 times.
In recent years we did see snow though, usually at the end of February. I'm not sure whether this is coincidence, or a product of the greenhouse-effect. The snow definitely creates a unique and romantic atmosphere in Amsterdam, even if you dislike winter, you would love the scenery of the old houses with white roofs and people ice-skating on the frozen canals.

Summers

Taking the table below in mind, I would suggest August as the best summer-month to visit Amsterdam:
Averagely, July is the hottest month in the Netherlands, closely followed by August. Important though, is the much smaller amount of rain during August than in July. June has more rain than July and is actually colder.
Still, if you are unlucky, the summers can be pretty much dominated by cloudy weather and rain. This shouldn't keep you from visiting though: Amsterdam has a lot of great indoor attractions, such as museums, theaters and don't forget the open-air events, that have tents installed to find shelter.
Amsterdam also knows its heat-waves, periods of warm weather and no rain. During these days a visit to the beach, at Zandvoort, can be really refreshing, but also the Vondelpark can offer a great day to relax.

Averages per month

Table 1

Sources: http://www.knmi.nl/, http://www.lenntech.com/calculators/regenval.htm, http://andyjoe.editthispage.com/pictures/viewer$1362

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