Malmö (Danish: Malmø) is the third largest city in Sweden and the 6th largest in the Nordic countries. Malmö is also the most populous city in Scania and is the economical and cultural center of South Sweden. Malmö is also an important part of the transnational Øresund Region, which covers Denmark east of Great Belt (including Copenhagen) and Scania.
Malmö was one of the earliest and most industrialized towns of Scandinavia, but it struggled with the adaptation to post-industrialism. Since the construction of the Øresund Bridge, Malmö has undergone a major transformation with architectural developments, and it has attracted new biotech and IT companies, and particularly students through Malmö University, founded in 1998. The city contains many historic buildings and parks, and is also a commercial center for the western part of Scania.
The administrative entity for most of the city is Malmö Municipality which, as of 31 March 2013, has 309,105 inhabitants in eight different localities. Malmö is also a bimunicipal locality, as part of it is formally situated in Burlöv Municipality. The total population of the urban area was 280,415 in December 2010.
Geography[]
Malmö is located at 13°00' east and 55°35' north. It is located near the southwestern tip of Sweden, in the Scania province.
Malmö is part of the transnational Øresund Region and since 2000, the Øresund Bridge crosses the Øresund to Copenhagen, Denmark. The bridge opened July 1st 2000, and measures 5 miles (8.05 kilometers) (the whole link totalling 16 km), with pylons reaching 670.9 feet (204.49 meters) vertically. Apart from the Helsingborg-Helsingør ferry links further north, most ferry connections have been discontinued.
Climate[]
Malmö, like the rest of southern Sweden, has an oceanic climate. Despite its northern location, the climate is surprisingly mild compared to other locations in similar latitudes, or even somewhat farther south, mainly because of the Gulf Stream. Because of its northern latitude, daylight extends 17 hours in midsummer, to only around 7 hours in midwinter. The actual sunshine is measured at 1,700 hours per annum in Falsterbo a bit further south and 1,592 hours per annum in Lund somewhat north, according to the 1961-1990 averages. For 2002-2014, the sunshine is measured at 1,895 hours per annum in Falsterbo and 1,803 hours per annum in Lund. The sunshine data in the weather box is based on the 2002-2014 data for Falsterbo which most closely resemble those for Malmö.
Summers are cool with average high temperatures of 20 to 23 °C (68 to 73 °F) and lows of around 11 to 13 °C (52 to 55 °F). Heat waves during the summer arise occasionally. Winters are fairly cold and windy, with temperatures steady between −3 to 4 °C (27 to 39 °F), but it rarely drops below −10 °C (14 °F). Scania's summers in general are made warmer due to its distance to the main Atlantic, with Denmark in between, which renders semi-continental effects with large temperature differences between seasons.
Rainfall is light to moderate throughout the year with 169 wet days. Snowfall occurs mainly in December through March, but snow covers do not remain for a long time, and some winters are virtually free of snow.
