Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Tuesday

Heavy rain to be followed by sunshine 

July has started off with more mixed weather than bone-dry June, and that will continue today according to weather forecasts.

Rain will drive across the country throughout this morning but there’s a good chance of rainbows as the clouds give way to sunshine later on. If you’re in northern or central Jutland this is less likely, with showers expected to continue this afternoon.

Temperatures will be a mild 18-19 degrees Celsius in areas that benefit from sunny weather but could be a chilly 12 degrees and up to 17 degrees with some wind chill elsewhere.

Vocabulary: byger – rain showers

Number of two-car families on the up

The number of families who own two cars has increased markedly in the last ten years despite the relatively high cost of owning a vehicle, according to Statistics Denmark.

Some 430,300 families owned more than one car a decade ago, but that total has now risen to 564,100. That is around 18 percent of all families in Denmark.

Rural municipalities including Rebild, Hedensted, Skanderborg and Favrskov have particularly high ownership of multiple cars, at around 31 percent of families.

Vocabulary: ejerskab – ownership

Long clean-up after Roskilde Festival begins

The last guests left the Roskilde Festival yesterday and a long process of cleaning and replenishing the area that hosts Scandnavia's largest festival, which hosts 130,000 people for up to a week, is now underway.

“If the weather is good and the trash is not trodden into the earth, we’ll probably be done in September,” festival deputy director Christina Bilde told broadcaster DR.

Empty cans and abandoned tents are among the many items that must be removed.

“The big things are taken away quickly and then a second cleaning takes places which continues until the autumn. It’s not our land and we must leave it as we found it. That means that we pick up the last cigarette butts and splinters by hand,” Bilde said.

Vocabulary: oprydning – tidying up

Whooping cough vaccine for pregnant women to be made permanent

Health minister Sophie Løhde said on Monday that a temporary arrangement offering pregnant women a free vaccine against whooping cough should be made permanent.

Vaccination against whooping cough during pregnancy was initially offered in 2019 during an epidemic of the infection and was extended several times, most recently in January, but expired at the end of March.

But the government now wants to make the vaccination scheme permanent, Løhde said.

“Whooping cough can be life threatening for newborns and infants who are a few months old or have not yet been vaccinated.

“That’s why it’s important that vaccination is offered to pregnant women so they can choose to protect their newborn child as well as possible against whooping cough,” the minister said in a press statement.

The government is looking at ways to finance and introduce a permanent vaccine programme by the end of the summer.

Vocabulary: kighoste – whooping cough