Copenhagen residents woke to a world of white this morning as an unexpected flurry dumped several centimetres of fluffy snow on the region.
Flurries should continue throughout the day as winds shift away from the easterly direction that had pumped frigid Siberian cold into the region and to the south and south-west bringing moister air.
Although the extreme cold continued last night, with temperatures in the city of Odense dropping to a low of -22.5 C – the coldest February temperature in 26 years, officials are urging caution before heading out onto frozen lakes and streams.
In Copenhagen, police have warned against walking on the downtown Lakes.
Copenhagen residents should be aware that the city only posts signage when the ice is safe to walk on. Safe ice will be marked with a blue sign reading: “Færdsel pÃ¥ isen tilladt”. The city’s website also has a list of updated list of ice conditions.
Other municipalities have different procedures for posting signage, and many use red signs reading “Færdsel pÃ¥ isen ikke tilladt” to indicate ice is unsafe.
Non-Danish speakers should be aware that “sikker” means “safe” and “ikke” means “not”. The word “forbudt”, meanning “not permitted” may also appear on signs indicating thin ice.
Although many bodies of water in the city never freeze entirely, due to current, vegetation or other causes, some could become safe in the coming days as temperatures are expected to remain below freezing.
DMI said, however, that with the change in wind direction the coldest weather is over for now. Overnight lows in the coming days should only be around -10 C, and daytime highs will be close to 0 C. Above freezing temperatures are possible on Thursday.
No-one in Denmark has reportedly suffered serious injury from the recent cold snap.
In order to help homeless shelters cope with the number of people seeking refuge from the cold, however, the social minister, Karen Hækkerup, said the government was standing by with additional funding for temporary accommodations.
“There should be emergency accommodations for everyone that needs it, even if they are here illegally,” Hækkerup said.
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