Widespread Damage and Fatal Accident After Storms Hit the Netherlands
A 25-year-old woman died when a tree fell on her car near Coevorden as severe storms hit the Netherlands on 19 June, bringing code orange warnings, lightning fires, hail and rail disruption.
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Severe thunderstorms moved across the Netherlands on Friday evening and overnight into Saturday, leaving damage in dozens of places and one person dead. Weather service KNMI had issued code oranje, the second-highest warning level, which signals a strong chance of dangerous weather; it applied to the middle and north of the country until 2:00 AM.
A fatal accident near Coevorden
In the village of ‘t Haantje, near Coevorden in the province of Drenthe, a 25-year-old woman from Joure died when a tree fell on her car at around 00:15. The police said emergency services were unable to save her and that she died at the scene.
Damage, fires and flooding
The storms brought frequent lightning, hard wind gusts and, in some places, hailstones around two centimetres across. Police and fire services in Flevoland, Utrecht, Gooi en Vechtstreek and Twente received a large number of calls. In the central Netherlands, authorities sent out an NL-Alert (an emergency warning sent to mobile phones), telling people in Flevoland and neighbouring municipalities to stay indoors and to call the emergency number 112 only in life-threatening situations. A spokesperson said the control room (in Dutch, the “meldkamer”) was overwhelmed with reports of trees on roads and roof sections blown loose.
Lightning set several buildings alight, including a house in Leek, in Groningen, which burned out after a strike. In Zwolle, part of the roof of a postal sorting centre collapsed; according to NOS, this was caused by the combination of pooled rainwater and strong wind. In Mander, in Twente, the grounds around a watermill flooded during a wedding, and all 150 guests and the couple reached safety. The strongest gust of the night, 113 km/h, was measured in Vlissingen, according to weather site Buienradar.
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Disruption to trains and events
The weather caused problems on the railways, with trees and branches on the tracks in several places. No trains ran between Geldermalsen and Den Bosch after the overhead power line was damaged, and the route between Hoogeveen and Beilen was blocked by a fallen tree. Between Zuidbroek and Veendam, fewer trains ran and passengers faced delays. The Julianapop festival in Julianadorp was cancelled after storm damage to the site, with organisers saying the event could not go ahead safely and that ticket holders would be informed later.
Across the border in Rastatt, Germany, near the French border, at least nine people were injured by a lightning strike during a sports event, according to local police; six were taken to hospital, and none had life-threatening injuries.
Storms after the year’s warmest day
The storms followed the warmest day of 2026 so far. In Ell, in Limburg, the temperature reached 35.1°C in the late afternoon: the first “zeer hete dag” (very hot day, meaning 35°C or higher) of the year, and the highest temperature measured anywhere in the country this year, according to Weeronline. At the main weather station in De Bilt, which is used for official national records, the temperature reached 31.4°C, the warmest reading there so far in 2026. It was the highest temperature ever recorded on 19 June in the Netherlands, but it did not count as an official national record, because the figure at De Bilt was not exceeded. The national heat plan, a government programme run by health institute RIVM that warns people during hot spells, stayed in place over the weekend. The warm weather is expected to continue into next week, although KNMI said the chance of thunderstorms decreased overnight.
If you come across storm damage that is not an emergency, contact your regional fire brigade rather than calling 112, which should be kept free for life-threatening situations.