Climate developments up until now

Climate monitoring

If we want to know if and how we are changing the climate, we first need to know how much it changes on its own. This is why old weather data is so valuable.

The oldest direct temperature measurements are from the 17^th Century, but not until approx. 1860’ies do we have reliable measurements covering the entire globe.

The Danish Meteorological Institute was established in 1872, and it has since then monitored weather and climate in Denmark. Weather and climate monitoring is coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which is an agency within the UN. WMO sets standards and guidelines for this international cooperation which includes the global observation and communication systems. DMI contributes to the global observation network and participates in the international exchange of observational data.

Topic contents

Temperature in Denmark
Precipitation and Sun in Denmark
Wind and sealevel in Denmark

Weather and temperature on the Faeroe Isles
Precipitation and Sun on the Faeroe Isles

Climate in Greenland
Temperature in Greenland

Topic home

In order to determine if we are in fact changing the climate we must first determine how much the climate changes on its own. Photo: Claus Kern-Hansen.

Climate in Denmark

The weather in Denmark is heavily influenced by the country’s proximity to both sea and to the continent. This means that the weather varies depending on the dominant wind direction and the season.

Compared with other geographic areas on the same latitude as Denmark, our climate is relatively warm. This is due to the warm North Atlantic Drift which originates in the tropical seas off the U.S. east coast. We are for instance located on the same latitude as the Hudson Bay in Canada and Siberia in Russia - areas which are almost uninhabitable because of the short summers and cold winters.

A guide to climate data and information from DMI is published as a technical report http://www.dmi.dk/dmi/tr10-07.pdf

Annual reports on the climate in Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland can be found on

http://www.dmi.dk/dmi/index/klima/dmi-publikationer/tekniskerapporter.htm

Text by Anne Mette K. Jørgensen og John Cappelen
Translation by Diego Winterborg, dw@dmi.dk
© DMI, April15th, 2009