Climatology
This page presents Denmark's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
The Danish climate is temperate with precipitation evenly distributed over the year. The mean annual temperature is 8.3ºC and mean annual precipitation is 746 mm. The annual mean temperature varies from year to year, from below 6ºC to 10ºC, with an average of 8.3ºC (1981-2010 level; 8.9ºC (2006-2015 level). The coldest year so far was 1879, with a mean temperature of 5.9ºC, while the hottest recorded year was 2014, with 10.0ºC. The four years 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2014 are the warmest ever recorded in Denmark. 2008 and 2006 both had a mean temperature of 9.4°C, 2007 had a mean temperature of 9.5°C. This is followed by 1990 with 9.3°C. The temperature in January and February averages around 1ºC (1981-2010 level); around 1.3ºC (2006-2015 level) but can vary greatly from more than 15ºC to below -31ºC.
The average temperature in July and August is around 16.5ºC (1981-2010); around 17ºC (2006-2015), but again can vary from -2ºC to more than 36ºC. Average annual precipitation varies greatly from year to year and from place to place. The lowest annual precipitation for the country as a whole was 466 mm in 1947, and the highest was 905 mm in 1999, while the average annual precipitation is 746 mm (1981-2010 level); 792 mm (2006-2015 level). The wettest period is normally June to January, while the driest is February to May. In the winter months, precipitation is sometimes in the form of snow.