Turn on a Dime

The English idiom "To turn on a dime" means to change (direction) very quickly. One thing we are learning here in the Netherlands is that the weather here can change very, very quickly. It can be warm and sunny at 10:15, drenching you in torrential rain at 10:20, terrifying you with thunder and lightning at 10:25, blowing hard enough to knock you over at 10:30, and sunny and warm again by 10:35. Kim affectionately refers to this as being washed and blow-dried all in one bicycle ride.

We've learned to watch the weather closely and are beginning to understand what we originally took for 'far too detailed' weather forecasts that showed with precision the amount of rain expected each day and when it would fall, and the amount of sunshine expected each data and when it could be enjoyed.

For example ... if you mouse over the first blue area of rain for today you'd see 03:00 - 04:00 2,4 mm which explains why I was awakened last night to the sound of rain pounding on the windows. Similarly the yellow area tells me that I better enjoy the 22 minutes of sunshine between 17:00 and 18:00 because after that it is all clouds ... and I'm likely to get a sprinkle of rain on my walk home.