October to remain extraordinarily bereft of sunshine

Month on course to have the fewest rays for 16 years

Oct 24, 2017

According to the national weather forecaster DMI, this month will end up being the least sunny October in 16 years.

Up until now, the month has been warmer, wetter and far more lacking in sunshine than is normally the case for October.

“We expect to reach 71 sunshine hours for the month in total. And that’s 31 sunshine hours less than normal. We haven’t seen so little sun in October since 2001,” said Mikael Scharling, a climatologist with DMI.

Wet, warm and without sun
And it’s not just October that has been bereft of sunshine as the entire year has been lacking. On average, Denmark gets four hours and 12 minutes of sunshine per day (Copenhagen figures – in western Europe, only Edinburgh, Torshavn, Dublin and Reykjavik get less), but this year has graced us with an average of 45 minutes per day less so far.

At least the average temperature for this October is higher than average at 11.2 degrees. That’s 1.4 degrees higher than the average over the past decade and the warmest since DMI started recording temperatures back in 1874.

And it’s about time too, because July, August and September of 2017 were all colder than the decade average. Alas, this month may have been warmer, but it has also been wetter – with 27 mm more than normal with a whole week yet to come.