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April still the cruellest month: Sahara weather, birch pollen and higher energy bills
Ben Hamilton
April 6th, 2018
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This article is more than 6 years old.
Warm weather in store for Sunday and Monday, but a quick turnaround in temperatures isn’t always good news in Denmark
Sizzling like the Sahara on Sunday, apparently (photo: Luca Galuzzi (Lucag))
TV2 likes to serve its weather with a big dollop of cream. After all, why mirror your competitors’ weather forecasts, when you can add a couple of degrees and be the go-to domain for optimistic, sun-worshipping maniacs.
READ MORE: Snow on the way … if you believe TV2 (well do you?)
This weekend’s weather is coming directly from the Sahara, we are being told this morning. “From Algeria to Denmark in six days” purrs one of the sub-headings – oooh, how exotic, even if it does sound like it was lifted from a story about human trafficking.
From Algiers to Aarhus
And this isn’t sensationalist weather reporting – for a change. The air that reaches us on Sunday, bringing temperatures as high as 20 degrees (19 in Jutland, according to DMI, and only 15 in the capital region, with 18 forecast for Monday), really was in the desert on Tuesday, where thermometers peaked at 36.8.
Fortunately for readers, an explanation is provided that air tends to cool down when it heads north because … it just does, doesn’t it.
The dreaded birch pollen
The sudden turnaround in temperatures won’t be good news for those allergic to birch pollen, as counts tends to be higher following a very sudden introduction to warm weather.
Every year the birch pollen, which tends to arrive in late April, catches thousands of new arrivals to these shores by surprise – some of whom have never had an allergy problem before.
According to Astma-Allergi Danmark, there are a million sufferers in the country. With pollen counts that regularly exceed a thousand per cubic metre, it’s no big surprise, really.
Fifth coldest March in four decades
Meanwhile, Danish residents can expect much higher heating bills following a longer winter than normal, which concluded with the fifth coldest March since 1980, in which temperatures were 43 percent lower than in 2017.
The Danish Technological Institute has revealed that its energy needs over the six months ending in March were 4 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier.
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