Climate of the Nordic countries - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The climate of the Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...

make up a region in Northern Europe

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...

, consisting of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

and Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands

Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...

, Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

and Åland. Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, Sweden

Sweden

has on average the warmest summer of the Nordic countries with high temperatures of 23 °C (73 °F) in July, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

and Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

have 22 °C (72 °F).

Winter

In Denmark

Denmark

, January temperatures average between -2 °C and 4 °C (39 °F). Denmark's coldest month, however, is February, where the mean temperature is 0 °C (32 °F). The amount of hours of sunlight per day does increase during the month of February for Denmark, where they get seven to eight hours a day. Iceland

Iceland

winters are generally mild considering how high its latitude is. The coastal lowlands of Iceland have average January temperatures of about 0 °C (32 °F), while the highlands of central Iceland

Highlands of Iceland

The Highlands of Iceland cover most of the interior of Iceland. They are situated above 400–500 metres and are mostly an uninhabitable volcanic desert, because the water precipitating as rain or snow infiltrates so quickly into the ground that it is unavailable for plant growth, which results...

generally stay below -10 °C. The lowest winter temperatures in Iceland are usually somewhere between -25 °C and -30 °C, although the lowest temperature ever recorded on Iceland was -39.7 °C. In Norway

Norway

, the coastal regions have mild winters, while further inland winter is much colder. During midwinter, southern areas of Norway only get five to six hours of sunlight a day, while the north gets little to none. In January, the average temperature in Norway is somewhere in between -6 °C and 3 °C (37 °F). Like neighboring Norway, Sweden averages -6 °C to 1 °C (34 °F) in the month of January. Swedish areas north of the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

rarely see the sun rise, due to the natural phenomenon of the polar night

Polar night

The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnight sun, occurs when the sun stays above the horizon for more than 24 hours.-Description:...

. In January and February, temperatures in this area can drop to -15 °C. In February, Northern Sweden sees about four to six hours of sunlight a day.

Spring

In Iceland

Iceland

, spring brings warmer and milder temperatures. In the month of May, the average temperature is somewhere between 4 °C (39 °F) and 10 °C (50 °F).

Summer

Denmark

's warmest month is July, where the mean temperature is 17 °C (63 °F). In Iceland

Iceland

, occasionally thunderstorms occur in the south in late summertime, due to warm air being deflected to northern latitudes from warm air masses in other parts of Europe. Also, cold air. originating from Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, warms rapidly over the ocean, forming thunderclouds. Thunderstorms, however, are very rare in Iceland, and there are less than five of them per year. In June, Iceland's average daily temperatures range from 8 °C (46 °F) to 16 °C (61 °F). Summer conditions vary in Norway

Norway

depending on location. The Norwegian coast has cooler summers than areas further inland. Due to its northern location, there is almost no darkness in June and July in the north, reaching as far south as Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

. In summer, the average temperature in the Northern areas are somewhere between 8 °C (46 °F) and 16 °C (61 °F), while further South it is usually 13 °C (55 °F) to 22 °C (72 °F). In Sweden

Sweden

, summers experiences more rainfall than other seasons. Swedish areas north of the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

rarely see the sun set during the months of June and July, due to the natural phenomenon Midnight sun

Midnight sun

The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at latitudes north and nearby to the south of the Arctic Circle, and south and nearby to the north of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Given fair weather, the sun is visible for a continuous...

. Northern parts of Sweden have summer temperatures in the 8 °C (46 °F) to 16 °C (61 °F) range, while furtherther south, the temperature is closer to 13 °C (55 °F) and 22 °C (72 °F). During summer in Greenland

Greenland

, ice sheets breaking up trigger what is known as "glacial motion

Glacial motion

Glacial motion is the motion of glaciers, which can be likened to rivers of ice. It has played an important role in sculpting many landscapes. Most lakes in the world occupy basins scoured out by glaciers...

" or "glacial earthquakes".

Global warming

Effects

Greenland

is one of the areas in both the Nordic region and the world most affected by climate change. A July 2006 study completed by "The Journal of Climate", determined that Greenland was the single largest contributor to global sea-level rise. The temperatures from the year 2000 to the present have caused several very large glaciers that had long been stable, to begin to melt away. Three glaciers that have been researched: Jakobshavn Isbræ

Jakobshavn Isbræ

Jakobshavn Isbræ, also known as the Jakobshavn Glacier and Sermeq Kujalleq is a large outlet glacier in West Greenland. It is located near the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat and ends at the sea in the Ilulissat Icefjord....

, Helheim and Kangerdlugssuaq Glaciers, jointly drain more than 16% of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering , roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is at a latitude of 77°N, near its...

. Satellite images and aerial photographs from the 1950s and 1970s show that the front of the glacier had remained in the same place for decades. In 2001, the ice sheet began retreating rapidly, retreating 7.2 km (4.5 mi) between 2001 and 2005. It has also accelerated from 20 m (65.6 ft) to 32 m (105 ft) a day. Western Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbræ

Jakobshavn Isbræ

is generally considered the fastest moving glacier in the world, and has been moving continuously at speeds of over 24 m (78.7 ft) a day with a stable terminus since at least 1950. The glacier's ice tongue began to break apart in 2000, leading to almost complete disintegration in 2003, while the retreat rate doubled to over 30 m (98.4 ft) per day. In the summer of 2005, the island of Uunartoq Qeqertoq

Uunartoq Qeqertoq

Uunartoq Qeqertaq, Greenlandic for "The Warming Island", is an island discovered in September 2005 by American explorer Dennis Schmitt off the east central coast of Greenland, north of the Arctic Circle...

was discovered off the eastern central coast of Greenland. Prior to 2005, many people assumed that Uunartoq Qeqertoq was actually a peninsula off of Liverpool Land

Liverpool Land

Liverpool Land is a peninsula in eastern Greenland.- Geography :The peninsula is bounded by Scoresby Sund in the south, Carlsberg Fjord in the northwest, Kangerterajiva in the southwest, the Greenland Sea in the east, and Jameson Land in the west...

, however, the melting ice shelves revealed that it was only connected to the mainland by glacial ice.

Predicted effects

Scientists estimate that should the current rate of climate change continue, Greenland's ice sheet

Greenland ice sheet

, which contains 630000 cubic miles (2,625,954.5 km³) of ice, could melt and cause global sea level to rise by 23 ft (7 m). Some climate experts have estimated that Greenland could be losing 80 cubic miles (333.5 km³) of ice each year.

The 2008 Environmental Performance Index

Environmental Performance Index

The Environmental Performance Index is a method of quantifying and numerically benchmarking the environmental performance of a country's policies. This index was developed from the Pilot Environmental Performance Index, first published in 2002, and designed to supplement the environmental targets...

ranked countries based on the environmental performance of the country's policies. On the list, Norway was ranked 2nd, Sweden was 3rd, 4th was Finland, Iceland was ranked as 11th, and Denmark came in 26th.

Winter

Spring

Summer

Global warming

Effects

Predicted effects

See also