If winter doesn't come early this year, 2014 will become Denmark's warmest ever year with an average of 9.7 degrees Celsius, according to national meteorologists DMI.

The current record – since nationwide measurements were first kept back in 1874 – was set in 2007 when the average annual temperature was 9.5 degrees.

Minister concerned
The climate and energy minister, Rasmus Helveg Petersen, is concerned about the development.

“This record is an alarm bell to replace coal and oil with sustainable energy as quickly as possible,” Petersen said in a press release.

“I hope the whole world has its ears peeled when the UN climate committee IPCC publishes its new report on November 2 in Copenhagen concerning the state of the climate.”

READ MORE: Climate change bringing exteme weather to Danish horizon

Up 1.5 degrees in 140 years
No individual months in 2014 have set any records – July tied for the second warmest, while March and April both ranked fourth – but every month since January has been above average in terms of temperature.

DMI has based its estimate on October being between 1.5 and 2 degrees above average, November being about 1 to 1.5 degrees above average and December being around 1 degree above average.

Since DMI began recording temperature measurements 140 years ago, Denmark's average annual temperature has increased by about 1.5 degrees.