Heavy rain, roadworks and a string of collisions have triggered the busiest morning rush-hour of the year, with nearly 1100km of tailbacks.

Motoring organisation ANWB said the heaviest traffic was around Rotterdam, where crashes on the A16 and A20 added to the congestion, while a collision on the A2 at Rosmalen caused a 45-minute delay around Utrecht.

Weather bureau KNMI cancelled an earlier yellow warning for the southern provinces when the wind forecast was downgraded from force 8 to force 6 to 7.

But driving rain in most of the country prompted more commuters to take to their cars on a Tuesday morning, usually the busiest day of the week. Temperatures are also relatively low for the time of year, peaking at 16C in the south.

The ANWB measured the total length of tailbacks at 1087km at 8.45am, while the KNMI, which only measures highways and motorways, recorded a peak of 658km. The records are likely to be broken again in November, when traffic hits its seasonal peak.

The wind and rain are expected to ease off over the course of the day, except in northern provinces. Wednesday will be dry but cloudy and will cool off during the evening, with frost possible in some places overnight. The sunshine will return from Thursday and temperatures could climb back up to 20C next week, weather bureau Weeronline said.