Weather

The Dutch love their weather radar. And honestly, it is a necessity when living in the Netherlands. This picture is a snapshot of the most commonly used weather site in the Netherlands. Every Dutch person checks this site prior to going outside.  When leaving work, people will check the radar and then there will be a mass exodus when they see they only have a small window of opportunity before the rain hits again. On a typical day, the entire country is covered in clouds and sometimes you can't even see the end of the rain. Those are the depressing days.

Dan and I have gotten into the habit of checking the radar as well.  Sometimes I jump for joy when I see a radar like the one pictured above! No clouds=no rain!! Other days I throw my computer down in disgust and curl up under the covers where I wish to remain until the rain stops. But most of the time, we have no other choice but to put our rain gear on and hope that the radar is wrong(it usually isn't). Such was the case this weekend.

On Sunday, as we were getting ready for church, I knew it was going to be bad. The rain was coming down pretty hard and I could see that it was windy out there. Not, blow the cat off the roof windy, but windier than usual. So we put on our rain gear (rain paints, waterproof coat and gloves) and head out. I had to carry my umbrella because I don't have a waterproof hood. We took off biking to church and again I had one of those moments where I was ready to pick my bike up and put it in the canal and fly home. I was staying mostly dry, thanks to the rain gear and my umbrella, but the wind was blowing so hard that i was having a difficult time keeping my umbrella upright. I was biking with one hand, holding down the umbrella with the other, and trying to avoid as much rain as possible. After about 20 minutes, we finally arrived at church, stripped off our rain gear and headed into the service mostly dry but dreading the ride home. I spent a lot of that service praying for the rain to stop.

Unfortunately, in the Netherlands, all you can do is check the radar and hope for the  best. Oh, and invest in one of these umbrellas made specifically for Netherlands wind/rain.