We’re four days into a record-breaking heatwave here. An “orange alert” (code oranje) has been declared in almost every province of the Netherlands:
![Orange alert on the map of Holland.](https://res.cloudinary.com/yktoo/image/upload/blog/ho1xszpvho3x3128.png)
The 75 years old absolute temperature record established back in 1944 has been broken yesterday.
KNMI, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, first reported the reading of 41.7 °C in the town of Deelen, but refuted the measurement later.
The current official heat record was registered yesterday, 25 July 2019, in Gilze-Rijen and equals 40.7 °C:
![Image](/en/blog/post/2019/07/26-the-national-temperature-record-is-broken/tweet-1154429975216283648.png)
The air temperature has surpassed the 40 degrees mark in many places yesterday. This has never happened before.
The previous record of 38.6 °C was established on 23 August 1944.
Fans and air conditioners in most stores are sold out. There was a very similar situation exactly one year ago. Then the heatwave stayed longer although it was a little bit cooler. I seem to have bought the last airco in the country back then.
Luckily, the air should start to cool down tomorrow. ■
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