hail zuid-holland
© Mustafa Ibrisimovic/RTL NieuwsMustafa Ibrisimovic from Overschie, a neighborhood of Rotterdam, found these hailstones in his garden.
Before the heatwave spread across the country, the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland was battered by hailstones the size of ping pong balls. On Saturday, July 20th, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) issued a code orange for the Province Zuid-Holland, indicating a "high risk of dangerous or extreme weather of which the impact is large, with a risk of damage, injury or excessive discomfort". While the heavy hailstorm didn't last long, it caused quite an upheaval: Trees were uprooted, cars were damaged, roof windows were broken, and small flash floods appeared in people's backyards and in the streets. The hailstones had a diameter of 2 to 4 cm.

See below for a collection of pictures and videos with description:

Twitter user Frank Hensen tweeted that his car got dented by hailstones the size of ping pong balls in Rotterdam:

In Piershil, Hoeksche Waard, Barry Bouman was watching the Tour de France with four of his friends in his backyard when his yard suddenly turned into a pool. Barry told Dutch news service RTL Nieuws: "It started to rain softly, before it suddenly started pouring. We just ran back to the house." See his video below:


Rick Zee from Schiebroek in Rotterdam-North filmed the hailstones as they fell:


Twitter user Sjaak Boot Fotograaf tweets: "And then the roof window broke!".


While some cars suffered damage because of the hailstorm, others got lucky:


Twitter user Monique shows how pieces of a tree that ended on a playground:


"The street is flooded. A short but heavy hailstorm," René wrote down on Twitter:


The Province Zuid-Holland was not the only area that was affected. The Dutch city of Tilburg, in the southern province of North Brabant, was also lashed by the storm, as described by Twitter user Sanne. She writes: "A serious #raintornado in our street just flooded the bedroom... Rain came through the closed windows. For several seconds you couldn't see anything outside. Seconds later the sun shines again..."


Twitter user Quintexx shares the following video filmed in the Dutch city of Spijkenisse:

For more similar examples of unusual or extreme weather conditions, check out our latest compilation of weather events: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - June 2019: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs.