Here in the UK, Denmark is best known for butter and bacon, pastries and Legoland, and more recently hygge – defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or wellbeing”. But the country does not have a particularly varied or interesting climate.
Mostly this is down to geography: Denmark is less than one-third the size of England, and covers roughly the same land area as the Netherlands. Like that country, it is very flat, reaching a maximum altitude of just over 170m (560ft). And because nowhere in Denmark is more than 32 miles (50km) from the sea, with most places considerably nearer, a maritime climate dominates.
Summers are sunny and warm, with maxima of about 22C (71F), on a par with London; but winters can be considerably colder, with long spells of freezing weather. This is due to the proximity of the Baltic Sea to the east, which when it freezes in winter brings very cold winds, which whip across this flat land, and are often accompanied by snow.
The Danish capital, Copenhagen, on the same latitude as Newcastle upon Tyne, has a climate typical of the eastern side of the country, with about 600mm (23in) of precipitation a year; slightly lower than the west, which is often battered by autumn gales.
