Denmark Hits Record Hottest Day At 37.0°C

Denmark recorded its highest temperature on record on Saturday, the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) said, as the country was hit by a heatwave that has already plagued Europe.

DMI initially posted on X around 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) that “with 36.6 °C north of Odense, we have the warmest day ever since measurements began in 1874.”

With a sense of foreboding, it noted “the day isn’t over yet…”

“The record lasted exactly one hour,” DMI said in a later post, announcing the new record was set at 37.0 °C.

“We’ve got a new heat record for the absolute highest temperature ever measured in Denmark. Today, 37.0 degrees was recorded both in Beldringe, north of Odense, and in Odum, north of Aarhus,” DMI meteorologist Rasmus Stoltze Hansen said in a statement.

The previous record temperature in the Scandinavian country was 36.4 °C in August 1975. DMI had warned that the record could be broken as a heatwave swept over the Scandinavian country.

Throngs of people in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, were seeking to cool off around fountains or by jumping in the water in the harbour.

“I’m feeling a bit better now, but yeah, I’m slowly melting away,” 26-year-old environmental engineer Lasse Fjeldgaard told AFP just after getting out of the water in Copenhagen’s harbour.

“I don’t think anyone is built for these kinds of temperatures, really. You’ve just got to stay hydrated and stay in the shade and watch out for your friends and strangers,” said Serine Helland, a 28-year-old consultant from Norway living in Copenhagen.

The heat record also coincided with the opening of the Roskilde music festival, and one attendant told public broadcaster DR that dragging his luggage to the campsite was “unbearable”.

DR reported that the festival had set up extra water stations for the some 50,000 festival attendees.

Meteorologist for broadcaster TV2, Peter Tanev, noted that scientists had anticipated for years that the record would be broken.

“We’ve been aware that the risk would be there, among other things, because of global warming,” Tanev said in a comment.

He added that the severe heatwaves that have become part of European summers now also hit Denmark.

“The question right now is, how long this record will stand. It’s probably only a matter of time before we reach 40 degrees in Denmark,” Tanev wrote.

Several other countries have been crushing records in recent days amid the deadly heatwave sweeping Europe.

An AFP analysis suggested that almost 200 million people would face temperatures above 35 °C on Saturday as an unprecedented heat spell that has already seen records tumble in Britain, France, and Switzerland drags on.

Scores of people have died either through heat-related illness or drowning accidents, and emergency services in several countries have said their facilities are saturated.