Snow in Amsterdam

In the night of Saturday the 6th of February 2021, Amsterdam saw its biggest snowstorm in 10 years!

The last one was in 2010 and I remember it like it was 10 years ago. It was a Friday afternoon and I was working in an Amsterdam office (this was my pre-photography phase) when it started snowing around 3pm. Before this, I’ve only ever seen snow in thin layers on the hoods of cars, or just coating a leaf. Needless to say, it was pretty special.

It started snowing harder by the time I had to leave (5pm) and trains were having trouble on the frozen tracks. Traffic was also piling up because the roads were too slippery to go anything faster than 20km’s an hour.

When I arrived at the train station, I couldn’t find a train to take me to Purmerend. Sloterdijk Station had people sleeping on the literal floor – because they had nowhere else to go. And there were people stuck on the road, in traffic for 8 hours or longer!

It was absolute madness.

Luckily the snowstorm of 2021 didn’t fall during rush hour, and temperatures have been staying under 0 degrees. So the snow isn’t melting too fast. People are advised to stay home, and the train and trams were out of action for the better part of 3 days. And you can forget about taking your bike on the slippery roads.

But holy moly, isn’t it just beautiful.

Snow in Amsterdam | Amsterdam photographer | Snowy Amsterdam