Storm force westerly winds are causing havoc during Tuesday morning’s rush hour as gusts reach 110 km an hour in some places.

The KNMI weather bureau is warning of dangerous conditions throughout the Netherlands and has issued a code yellow weather warning. Gusts of 110 km an hour have already been recorded on the Wadden Islands to the north of the country.

The winds are expected to be accompanied by hail and possibly sleet and are not expected to die down until Tuesday evening, the KNMI says.

Exceptional

Motoring organisation ANWB says Tuesday morning’s rush hour is exceptionally busy. A normal rush hour usually has 150 km of traffic jams, but by 07.00 jams had already reached 100 km. ‘We were expecting 250 km of jams this morning but we will have to adjust our forecast upwards,’ a spokesman told the Telegraaf.

Several roads are closed where lorries and trees have been blown over. The A6 towards Lelystad is blocked by two lorries and the detour route on the N50 was also closed for a while.

Cancellations

Trains between Amsterdam Centraal and Breda have been cancelled for most of the day because of the weather. Rail company NS said on Wednesday evening that no intercity trains would travel on the high-speed line between Rotterdam and Breda on Tuesday.

Amsterdam Schiphol airport is warning of delays and cancellations of flights on Tuesday because of ‘limited use of landing strips’. KLM has already cancelled a number of flights, mainly within Europe, and a number of in-coming flights have been rerouted.

At Vlissingen, the 292-metre long container ship Sea Land Meteor has run aground.