10 Photos That Show the Extreme Drought on the Dutch Coastlines

This year has been a year of extremes in the Netherlands. We had an extremely cold winter with all of the country frozen, including the Amsterdam canals which almost never happens. I took the chance to document the extreme cold of the Netherlands earlier this year. Now, what followed was an extremely hot spring that has now transitioned into summer.

Similar to the unusual cold, this heat is unusual. Last time it was this dry with lack of rain was more than 40 years ago in 1976! With the heat comes a long period of no rain and dryness. You can basically see the lack of rain everywhere, especially on the grass that is normally green but is now yellow.

This weekend I took a drive to the Dutch coastlines. I took these photos all the way up north but there are a lot of coastal areas in the country that look similar. Mud patterns forming from the dry soil is something that is really photogenic. Here are 10 photos showing the effect of the dry weather on the Dutch coast.

With the tide going up and down you can see the water coming into the mud cracks, but the area where the tide is highest will still keep its textures in the soil. Something that we don’t see a lot and it kind of reminded me of the deserts in the US.

The gear I used was the Sony a7R III, Sony 12-24mm G, and Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8.

About the author: Albert Dros is an award-winning Dutch photographer. His work has been published by some of the world’s biggest media channels, including TIME, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, and National Geographic. You can find more of his work on his website, or by following him on Facebook and Instagram. This article was also published here.