Winter of 2009-2010
This year's winter was the coldest in many years in Denmark. Therefore many of the local field herpetologists and hobbyists anticipated the snakes to reappear much later than previous years. Most people thought the first common adders would appear in mid March, maybe even as late as the end of April. Yet there were reports of common adders as early as sat. 06 march, 2010. Below this text is a report from DMI, the report describes the winter in Denmark 2009-2010, a winter that offered strict conditions for all of our amphibians and reptiles.
Source: dmi.dk - Quote: Lone Seir Carstensen, DMI: (http://www.dmi.dk/dmi/vinteren_i_tal)
We had the coldest winter in 14 years
Meteorologist and director of DMI's Climate Data and Information, Lone Seir Carstensen has made a preliminary calculation of the most interesting values of calendar winter, which started 1st December 2009 to 28 February 2010.
Temperature: The average temperature of the winter 2009-2010 ended at minus 1.5 ° C. "It is 2.0 ° C below normal temp - In the period 1961-1990 we had an average of 0.5 °. The winter of 2009-2010 has been the coldest since the winter of 1995-1996 - where the average temp. ended at minus 2.3 ° C," says Lone Seir Carstensen. This winter was Denmark’s 17th coldest winter since records began in the winter of 1874-1875.
Rainfall: The total Danish rainfall of the winter 2009-2010 ended at 141 millimetres. "A normal amount of rainfall during Danish winters is 161 millimetres, so strictly speaking the winter ended up in the dry end of the scale. However, cold winters are often very dry, so for a cold winter 2009-2010 was relatively precipitation-rich.
Sun: The number of sun hours in winter 209-2010, ended up on 160 hours. "The normal hours of sunshine in the winter is 155, so we must say that this year we ended up very close to the expected," says Lone Seir Carstensen.
We had the coldest winter in 14 years
Meteorologist and director of DMI's Climate Data and Information, Lone Seir Carstensen has made a preliminary calculation of the most interesting values of calendar winter, which started 1st December 2009 to 28 February 2010.
Temperature: The average temperature of the winter 2009-2010 ended at minus 1.5 ° C. "It is 2.0 ° C below normal temp - In the period 1961-1990 we had an average of 0.5 °. The winter of 2009-2010 has been the coldest since the winter of 1995-1996 - where the average temp. ended at minus 2.3 ° C," says Lone Seir Carstensen. This winter was Denmark’s 17th coldest winter since records began in the winter of 1874-1875.
Rainfall: The total Danish rainfall of the winter 2009-2010 ended at 141 millimetres. "A normal amount of rainfall during Danish winters is 161 millimetres, so strictly speaking the winter ended up in the dry end of the scale. However, cold winters are often very dry, so for a cold winter 2009-2010 was relatively precipitation-rich.
Sun: The number of sun hours in winter 209-2010, ended up on 160 hours. "The normal hours of sunshine in the winter is 155, so we must say that this year we ended up very close to the expected," says Lone Seir Carstensen.
A cold winter2009-2010’s winter, (December, January and February), had an average temperature of -1.5 ° C on average for the whole country. It is 2.0 ° C below normal intended for the period 1961-90 (normal 0.5 ° C). Hence this year's winter differs radically from the past several year’s winters, apart from the winter of 2002-2003 all average has been above 0 degrees since the winter of 1995-1996, which was -2.3 ° C as average. The last three winters have been relatively warm, 4.1 ° C (2007-2008) and 4.7 ° C (2006-2007) and 1.5 ° C (2008-2009). Winter of 2006-2007 was also the warmest recorded winter since the nationwide polls began in 1874. The coldest recorded winters of 1939-1940 and 1962-1963, both with an average of -3.5 ° C. The highest temperature during the winter of 2009-2010 was 9.7 ° C measured in St. Jyndevad in Jutland on the evening of 6th December 2009. Winter's lowest temperature of -19.0 ° C was measured just after midnight to 20 December 2009 at Horsens in Jutland. Number of frost days in the winter of 2009-2010 was 74 and considerably higher than normal for the period 1961-90, which is 53 days. |
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Natural habitat, winter | © Mikkel Frederiksen 2010