Although most of June 2024 was cool, this week has seen the summer begin to heat up with temperatures at or close to 25 degrees Celsius on several days.

For readers from a lot of other countries, this might not feel like a big deal, but in Denmark, it’s warm.

There is no standard international definition of a heatwave, with each country deciding how to define it, but Denmark’s definitions underline the fact that 25 degrees is generally seen as uncomfortable.

Denmark’s national meteorological agency, DMI, defines a heatwave or varmebølge as a three-day period on which the average highest temperature is over 25 degrees Celsius.

There’s also an additional ‘level’ of heat wave, hedebølge, for which the average highest temperature for the three days in question must exceed 28 degrees Celsius.

READ ALSO: Danish word of the day: Varmebølge

Danes in general are more used to cold temperatures and the country’s infrastructure is built with this in mind.

A 2023 report from Oxford University placed Denmark among the countries which are the most poorly prepared for increasing global temperatures.

That is due in no small part to the construction of Denmark’s buildings, which historically has been with a different climate in mind to the one considered in the report — essentially, Danish buildings are generally designed to keep heat in and with cooling a lower priority.

READ ALSO: Why hot weather feels even hotter in Danish buildings 

It’s an issue which doesn’t affect Denmark alone but all of the Nordic countries.

Engineering consultancy company Sweco recently investigated how a number of different European cities, including Copenhagen, could build heatwave resilience as climate change looks likely to increase their frequency. In Copenhagen, the number of heatwave days per year is expected to increase by 160 percent by 2100, with similar figures for the other Scandinavian capitals Stockholm (150 percent) and Oslo (140 percent).

“The increase in temperature is greater here [in the Nordic countries] and we have probably come the least far in planning for it. We’ve been more focused on protecting ourselves from the cold,” Martina Söderström, division manager with  Sweco Environment & Planning, told The Local Sweden.

 “If you look at Rotterdam and Brussels, for example, they’re further ahead both in measuring the heat and maybe also have a clearer plan of the measures they’re going to take to mitigate it.”

Denmark also has a lot of sunlight during the summer – Copenhagen gets over 17.5 hours of sunshine around midsummer, while Aalborg in the north gets 18 hours.

This means that temperatures often stay high during the night, providing fewer opportunities for people to recuperate from the heat and putting more stress on vulnerable individuals.

Söderström said that there are ways of mitigating the problem, with city design central to this.

“Natural solutions are an important piece of the puzzle,” Söderström said. 

“It’s important to get green and blue infrastructure into city planning. Trees are great, as they give shade and also they release water vapour into the air which has a cooling effect, and bodies of water can have the same cooling effect – when it’s cooler than the surrounding air, it helps to cool it down. So water, green solutions, proximity to parks and shade, all of those things are important to have in a city environment.”

People in cities are also more affected by heatwaves, Söderström added, as hard surfaces like asphalt, concrete and metal roofs absorb heat, further warming the air as this heat is emitted.

“It’s important to think about this when planning areas. Think about getting plants and water into urban areas, but also the materials being used.”

Do you come from somewhere with a warmer climate than Denmark? How do you find the heat here? Does it affect you more or less than it did back home? Let us know in the comments below.