King’s Days are colder than Queen’s Days despite being just three days apart, NOS weather woman Roosmarijn Knol has found ahead of Saturday’s celebrations.

Many people feel that April 30th, when the Dutch monarch’s birthday used to be celebrated, was always sunny while April 27, the current king’s birthday, is invariably cold and miserable, Knol said.

“I have come to the surprising conclusion there is some truth in that feeling,” Knol said. “if you look at the statistics, there is a difference of one degree Celsius between the two dates. On April 27 it’s 15 degrees on average and on the 30th it’s 16. And it also rained more on the 26th.”

Knol said the difference is difficult to explain. “Perhaps it’s simply that the 27th is a little bit closer to winter. There’s climate change as well. But there is no single cause,” she said.

The warmest Queen’s Day was in 1993  when it reached 27° degrees. That is seven degrees up on the warmest King’s Day record, set in 2020.

Willem-Alexander changed the date of the celebration, when Dutch towns and cities turn into a giant street market, when he became king in 2013. His mother, princess Beatrix, who was born on January 31, decided to hold on to her mother Juliana’s birthday because the weather would be more clement.

This year’s King’s Day weather is not going to be very springlike either, Knol said, with temperatures around the 16° mark. There will be occasional showers as well, she said.

Revelers out on the tiles the night before and early birds looking for bargains should wrap up warm, the Dutch Red Cross has warned, because temperatures will fall to around 5° overnight.