🇳🇱 Amsterdam Climate Health Index
Sunday, 20 September 2026 · updated 03:30 UTC · refreshes live through the day · LIVE
Modelled estimates · Medically reviewed guidance · Not an official warning service
est. = index derived by Mobi Doctor's model from the weather inputs. All values are modelled estimates from European weather and atmospheric forecast systems (Open-Meteo · CAMS/Copernicus) — not direct readings from a monitoring station in this city, and not official public-health warnings.
Cancer Immunology Researcher
The Climate Health Score for Amsterdam today is 2.8/10 — low exposure on a 0–10 scale where 10 is extreme. It reflects the worst of ten live hazard readings for Amsterdam — heat, UV, air quality, pollen, hydration demand, allergy, mosquito activity, fire weather, flu season and cold — and is recalculated through the day by Mobi Doctor's European Climate Health Index.
How heat behaves in Amsterdam
Amsterdam's canals and maritime air moderate most summers, but heat spikes now cross 35 °C with increasing regularity onto dense, poorly cooled housing. Humid canal-side nights are edging toward the tropical-night threshold in bad years.
Amsterdam's canal belt is heritage-locked: tall, narrow, single-aspect houses that cannot cross-ventilate, under roofs that were never meant to shed heat, in a city where air conditioning remains the exception. The canals themselves store warmth and humidity through summer nights, and the dense inner districts hold evening temperatures the polder suburbs lose. Cyclists are the city's exposure wildcard — daily exertion continues regardless of temperature, because the bicycle is transport, not sport.
Heat and your health in Amsterdam today
Feels-like maximum 18°C (air temperature 19°C) · tonight's minimum 14°C · humidity 77% · heat pillar score 0.0/10
Where today sits in Amsterdam's year: the heat season here typically runs mid-June to mid-August — spikes on a maritime baseline, peaking mid-July to early August, recent spikes past 35°C. Tropical nights in Amsterdam: rare — humid canal-belt nights approach 20°C only in strong spells.
Heat stresses the body long before heatstroke. As the air temperature and humidity climb, your heart works harder to push blood to the skin for cooling, you lose fluid and electrolytes through sweat, and blood pressure can dip when you stand. That is why hot days bring more dizziness, fainting, migraines, kidney strain and falls — and studies of heatwave hospital admissions also report more urinary tract infections, thought to be linked to dehydration — not just classic heat exhaustion.
Night temperature matters as much as the daytime peak. When a night stays above 20°C — a tropical night — the cardiovascular system gets far less of its overnight recovery window — one reason heatwave mortality tracks hot nights more closely than hot afternoons. Tonight in Amsterdam drops to around 14°C, which gives the body a proper recovery window.
Pollen count in Amsterdam today
Pollen levels are currently minimal · score 0.0/10
Amsterdam's pollen calendar: Alder February–March · birch April · grass May–July. The live counts above show where today falls in that cycle.
Pollen allergy (hay fever) is triggered by different plants through the year: trees like birch and alder in spring, grasses in early summer, and weeds such as mugwort and ragweed from late July into autumn. Symptoms — sneezing, itchy eyes, a blocked nose, worsened asthma — flare when daily counts cross species-specific thresholds, and air pollution makes the same pollen load feel worse by priming the airways.
On high-count days: keep windows closed in the early morning and evening, shower and change after time outdoors, and start antihistamines before symptoms peak rather than after. If you use an asthma inhaler, keep it with you on high pollen days.
Allergy load in Amsterdam today: pollen × air quality
Combined pollen-and-air allergy load 0.4/10 — pollen 0.0 amplified by air quality (EAQI 18) · estimated from live data
Amsterdam's birches flower in April along canals where traffic runs calmer than in most capitals — priming here is moderate, and the allergy score usually tracks pollen with a modest urban multiplier. Grass carries June on polder winds.
Allergy risk is more than the pollen count. Exhaust particles damage the airway lining and prime the immune response, so the same grains provoke stronger symptoms on polluted days — and pollutant-stressed plants release more allergenic protein per grain. This combined score therefore reads pollen and air quality together: identical counts can feel very different on clean and dirty days, which is why it is tracked as its own pillar rather than folded into either input.
Today the combination is modest — sensitised people can treat this as a normal day, with the usual seasonal routine.
UV index in Amsterdam today
Maximum UV index 4.2 · moderate on the WHO scale
Amsterdam's strong-UV season: May to August — midday index 6–7.
UV radiation peaks between late morning and mid-afternoon and is invisible — it burns on cool, cloudy days too. At UV 8 and above, unprotected fair skin can burn in under 30 minutes. Repeated burns drive most skin-cancer risk, and some common medicines (certain antibiotics, diuretics, acne treatments) make skin dramatically more sun-sensitive.
Sun protection is low-priority today, but sunscreen remains sensible for extended time outdoors.
Air quality in Amsterdam today
European AQI 18 · good (EAQI scale: 0 good → 100+ worst) · PM2.5 4.5 µg/m³ · ozone 54 µg/m³ · score 1.4/10
Amsterdam's cycling-first core keeps local exhaust low, but the city sits in Europe's most industrialised delta: refinery and shipping plumes from the west and continental particle drift from the east set more of its air quality than its own streets do.
Fine particles (PM2.5) reach deep into the lungs and bloodstream; ozone forms in sunny, hot weather and irritates the airways — which is why heatwaves and smog often arrive together. People with asthma, COPD, heart disease, pregnant women and children feel the effects first: more wheeze, more inhaler use, more chest tightness.
Levels are acceptable for outdoor activity today for most people, including sensitive groups.
Fire weather around Amsterdam today
Fire-weather score 0.5/10 — 19°C, 77% humidity, wind to 29 km/h · estimated (weather conduciveness, not active fires)
The Dutch landscape barely burns: dune scrub and heathland east of the city smoulder occasionally in dry springs, and that is the ceiling. Fire weather in Amsterdam is a low-score pillar that stirs only in exceptional continental drought.
This pillar scores how conducive the weather is to wildfire — heat, dry air and wind, the published Angström approach — not actual fires. Its health meaning is smoke: wildfire smoke is concentrated fine particulate that can travel hundreds of kilometres, and a smoke episode hits the same people hardest as any pollution spike — asthma, COPD, heart disease, pregnancy, young children and older adults.
Conditions are not notably fire-conducive today. If you see or smell smoke regardless, treat it like a pollution episode: head indoors, close the windows, and postpone outdoor exertion.
Hydration in Amsterdam today
Hydration demand score 0.0/10 · estimated from live weather
Amsterdam's cycling logic keeps exertion constant whatever the weather: humid warm days drain riders who never think of cycling as sport, and canal-side drinking culture defers the refill — the bike basket is the right place for a water bottle.
Fluid needs are not fixed — they scale with heat, humidity, dry air, UV and activity. Thirst lags behind need, especially in older adults, whose thirst signal weakens with age. Dark urine, headache, and light-headedness on standing are earlier and more reliable signals.
Today's guidance: Normal — drink to thirst; keep water with you on long outings.
Mosquito activity in Amsterdam tonight
Mosquito activity score 2.5/10 — tonight around 14°C at 77% humidity · estimated from live weather (activity, not disease risk)
Mosquito season in Amsterdam: June to September — canal-side dusk earns its reputation. The score above places tonight inside that season using live temperature and humidity.
Mosquitoes fly when nights are warm and humid enough — activity climbs steeply once evenings hold above about 15°C and peaks on still, muggy nights. Southern Europe adds the tiger mosquito, a day-biter now established across much of the Mediterranean, whose continued spread north ECDC tracks. In parts of southern and central Europe, late summer also brings limited local transmission of mosquito-borne infections such as West Nile virus — an activity score is not a disease-risk score, but high-activity weeks are when precautions earn their keep.
Practical: use a repellent containing DEET or icaridin at dusk, cover ankles and wrists outdoors in the evening, screen or close windows at night, and empty standing water on balconies weekly. Speak to a doctor about any fever that develops in the week after heavy bite exposure in an affected region.
Flu season in Amsterdam: where today sits
Flu-season level 0.9/10 · seasonal climatology (ECDC winter pattern), not live case counts
Flu crosses Amsterdam December through February, peaking in January, mixed by trams, trains and winter cycling in close traffic. Summer sits at the floor. The Dutch autumn campaign invites over-60s and medical risk groups from October.
Influenza in Europe is sharply seasonal: transmission runs low through summer, builds from late autumn as life moves indoors and cool, dry air favours the virus, then peaks between December and February in ECDC's surveillance pattern. This pillar follows that climatology — it tells you where the calendar sits, not this week's case counts, and we label it that way rather than dress a seasonal curve up as live surveillance.
What to do with it: the score rising through autumn is the cue that vaccination time has arrived — October to November gives antibodies time to build before the peak, and matters most for over-65s, pregnant women, young children and anyone with heart, lung, kidney or immune conditions. At today's low seasonal level, a summer fever is far more likely to be something other than flu — and worth a doctor's opinion if it lasts.
Cold stress in Amsterdam: the other end of the index
Cold-stress score 0.0/10 — tonight's minimum around 14°C
Amsterdam winter is North Sea raw: 0–6°C, wind-chill off the IJ, canal-skating freezes now a rarity rather than a season. Housing is well heated and insulated by European standards; cold risk concentrates in wind exposure and the occasional eastern snap.
Across Europe, cold claims more lives each year than heat — mostly quietly, through winter's extra heart attacks, strokes and respiratory infections rather than hypothermia. Cold air raises blood pressure and thickens blood within minutes, narrows airways, and stresses hearts hardest in the first snaps of the season, before bodies and habits adjust. Indoor cold in poorly heated homes does as much damage as the weather outside.
Cold is not a factor today — the score sits low, and this pillar will matter again when the season turns. It stays on the page year-round because an honest index needs both ends of the thermometer.
The Amsterdam climate-health year
The Dutch maritime year runs mild with sharpening edges: alder and birch open the pollen calendar in February–April, grass carries May to July, and summers alternate weeks of grey 22°C with increasingly regular spikes past 30°C — 2019 crossed 35°C in the city. Humid canal-side nights now brush the tropical threshold in bad years. September settles quickly into the long, wet, windy Dutch winter half-year.
| Season | Typical pattern in Amsterdam |
|---|---|
| Heat season | mid-June to mid-August — spikes on a maritime baseline |
| Peak heat | mid-July to early August, recent spikes past 35°C |
| Tropical nights | Rare — humid canal-belt nights approach 20°C only in strong spells |
| Pollen calendar | Alder February–March · birch April · grass May–July |
| Mosquito season | June to September — canal-side dusk earns its reputation |
| Strong-UV months | May to August — midday index 6–7 |
Typical seasonal patterns from established climatology — the live scores above always reflect today's actual conditions.
Visiting Amsterdam? What travellers should know
Amsterdam is toured by bicycle and on foot, and both keep working in heat: allow slower pace and more water than the temperature seems to demand, because exertion is built into the city's logic. Canal boat tours are unshaded glass boxes at midday — book covered or evening slots in summer. Museumplein's big three are the natural afternoon refuge; book timed entries. On genuinely hot days join the outward flow: locals swim the designated open-water spots and the beach at Zandvoort is twenty-five minutes by train.
If you do get ill away from home, you don't have to navigate a foreign health system for something a consultation can solve: speak to a Mobi Doctor physician online from your hotel or apartment.
Medicines in Amsterdam this week
Temperatures are currently inside normal storage ranges. Standard advice applies: keep medicines below 25°C, out of direct sun, and never in a parked vehicle.
Should I speak to a doctor about heat symptoms?
Heat illness escalates in stages, and the right response depends on which stage you're seeing. Use these three tiers:
ACall 112 now — emergency signs
- Confusion, slurred speech, or disorientation; a seizure; or fainting that doesn't resolve within a minute or two
- Skin that has turned hot and dry after earlier heavy sweating, or a body temperature of 40 °C or more — signs of heatstroke
- Chest pain, severe shortness of breath, or a racing pulse that doesn't settle with rest in the cool
- Heat-exhaustion symptoms — dizziness, headache, nausea, cramps, pale clammy skin — that are no better after 30 minutes of rest, cooling and fluids: this can be heatstroke developing
- A baby, elderly person, or someone with heart disease who becomes limp, unresponsive, or "not themselves" in the heat
While waiting: move them to the coolest place available, remove excess clothing, cool the skin with water and moving air, and do not give fluids to anyone who is drowsy or confused.
BSpeak to a doctor today
- Heat symptoms that improve with cooling but keep returning on hot days, or leave you washed out for more than a day
- Repeated vomiting, or very dark urine / almost no urination through the day
- You take diuretics, blood-pressure, heart, or diabetes medication and feel unwell in the heat — some of these medicines change how your body handles fluid and temperature
- You are pregnant, or you have a heart or kidney condition that feels worse than usual in this weather
CSelf-care and recheck in 30 minutes
- Mild headache, tiredness, or thirst: move somewhere cool, remove unnecessary clothing, drink plenty of water or an isotonic sports drink, and cool the skin — spray or sponge with cool water and fan
- Recheck at 30 minutes. Improving means continue resting out of the heat for the rest of the day. Not improving is an emergency — call 112 (tier A), not a wait-and-see
Local numbers in Netherlands: 112 — EU-wide emergencies · huisartsenpost via your GP’s number (out of hours) · for non-urgent concerns, a Mobi Doctor physician is online in minutes.
General guidance, not a personal assessment — when in doubt, call. In an emergency always call 112.
Sources for the medical guidance
The clinical guidance on this page follows public authority sources:
Medication storage limits follow each product's manufacturer information (SmPC / patient leaflet) — always defer to the leaflet for your specific product, and to your prescriber for personal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to exercise outdoors in Amsterdam today?
Yes — heat is not a limiting factor today (heat score 0.0/10). Usual sun protection applies.
Do I need to worry about storing insulin or Ozempic in Amsterdam this week?
Standard rules apply this week: unopened stock in the fridge at 2–8°C, in-use pens below 30°C away from direct sun.
Who is most at risk from today's conditions in Amsterdam?
Today's Climate Health Score is 2.8/10 (Low). Elderly: low · Children: low · Outdoor workers: low · Athletes: low. No dominant environmental hazard today.
Will tonight be a tropical night in Amsterdam?
No — tonight drops to around 14°C, below the 20°C tropical-night threshold, giving the body a proper recovery window.
When is the heat season in Amsterdam?
Typically mid-June to mid-August — spikes on a maritime baseline, peaking mid-July to early August, recent spikes past 35°C. Rare — humid canal-belt nights approach 20°C only in strong spells. Today's score at the top of this page reflects live conditions, not the seasonal average.
When is pollen season in Amsterdam?
Alder February–March · birch April · grass May–July. This page tracks live counts for six species (alder, birch, grass, mugwort, olive and ragweed) and updates them through the day.
When is mosquito season in Amsterdam?
June to September — canal-side dusk earns its reputation. The live mosquito-activity score on this page places tonight inside that season using temperature and humidity — it measures activity conditions, not disease risk.
Highest-risk cities in Europe today
All cities:
Amsterdam score history — last 30 days
One point per day, refreshed by the daily rebuild. Full archive downloads in the press room.
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Cite this page: “Mobi Doctor — European Climate Health Index, Amsterdam Climate Health Index”, https://www.mobidoctor.eu/health-index/amsterdam/ — updated daily, data CC-BY 4.0 with attribution.