Country Guide

Denmark consists of the peninsula of Jutland and a group of islands at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, between Sweden and Germany. It has two self-governing dependencies - Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Denmark's cool maritime climate is rather similar to that of Britain or the state of Washington. Due to its small size and low elevation - no part of Denmark is higher than 180 m/600 ft - weather and climate do not vary much throughout the country.

Spells of cold weather occur in most winters when the waters of the Baltic freeze in whole or in part. In some winters such spells may be prolonged. If this happens the waters of the Sound between Zeeland and south Sweden may freeze. The average duration of winter snow cover is about thirty days but in some winters there may be little snow.

Conditions in summer are variable from year to year and from day to day. Although spells of warm, settled weather may last for a few weeks in some years, it rarely becomes unpleasantly hot.

Precipitation occurs all the year round, but summer and autumn are the wettest seasons. The west coast (see the table for Fanø is a little wetter than the east (see the table for Copenhagen).

When Atlantic storms cross the country or move into the North Sea, quite severe gales may affect Denmark, and the west coast has the reputation of being particularly exposed and windswept. Such gales may occur at all times of the year but are less frequent and less severe in summer.

Denmark has a generally pleasant climate the year round and, apart from the occasional cold winter, rarely suffers extremes of weather. Daily sunshine hours range from between one and two in winter to about eight in summer.