The Source of Europe's Mild Climate (The Rocky Mountains?)

[depakid]

A very interesing article downplayng the effect of the thermohaline circulation. There's a touch of polemic in here- so I'm not entirely certain what to make of it.

The notion that the Gulf Stream is responsible for keeping Europe anomalously warm turns out to be a myth
by Richard Seager

If you grow up in England, as I did, a few items of unquestioned wisdom are passed down to you from the preceding generation. Along with stories of a plucky island race with a glorious past and the benefits of drinking unbelievable quantities of milky tea, you will be told that England is blessed with its pleasant climate courtesy of the Gulf Stream, that huge current of warm water that flows northeast across the Atlantic from its source in the Gulf of Mexico. That the Gulf Stream is responsible for Europe's mild winters is widely known and accepted, but, as I will show, it is nothing more than the earth-science equivalent of an urban legend.

This is not to say that there is no climatological mystery to be explained. The countries of northern Europe do indeed have curiously mild climates, a phenomenon I didn't really appreciate until I moved from Liverpool to New York. I arrived in the Big Apple just before a late-summer heat wave, at a time when the temperature soared to around 35 degrees Celsius. I had never endured such blistering temperatures. And just a few months later I was awestruck by the sensation of my nostrils freezing when I went outside. Nothing like that happens in England, where the average January is 15 to 20 degrees warmer than what prevails at the same latitude in eastern North America. So what keeps my former home so balmy in the winter? And why do so many people credit the Gulf Stream?

Like many other myths, this one rests on a strand of truth. The Gulf Stream carries with it considerable heat when it flows out from the Gulf of Mexico and then north along the East Coast before departing U.S. waters at Cape Hatteras and heading northeast toward Europe. All along the way, it warms the overlying atmosphere. In the seas between Norway and Newfoundland, the current has lost so much of its heat, and the water has become so salty (through evaporation), that it is dense enough to sink. The return flow occurs at the bottom of the North Atlantic, also along the eastern flank of North America. This overturning is frequently referred to as the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation, or simply the "Atlantic conveyor." It is part of the global pattern of ocean circulation, which is driven by winds and the exchange of heat and water vapor at the sea surface.

The Gulf Stream indeed contributes to Europe's warmth, but it is wrong to conflate the climate difference across the North Atlantic with the northward flow of warm water in the Gulf Stream. This erroneous logic leads to such statements as (from The Times of London): "The British Isles lie on the same latitude as Labrador on the East Coast of Canada, and are protected from a similarly icy climate by the Atlantic conveyor belt." Such claims are absolutely wrong.

More, with some cool graphics: http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/51963?fulltext=true&print=yes#52132

[Fovea]

1. I don't think I agree with the underlying

method they are using to derive a climate. If I understand what they are doing correctly, it doesn't create something that maps seasonality like koppen. It just seems to be a 'what flavor is my noise?' sort of result.


Climate is the result of all heat transport effects and sinks in the world as it is, natural and anthropogenic acting upon each other. It involves albedo and vapor pressure, coriollis effect, diffraction patterns of long and short atmospheric waves, and a host of other variables that create today's weather, down to the fabled mexican butterfly wings. I think it is safe to state that our previous models have been found wanting in the last decade, and the tendency of error has been to understate the build up of northern latitude heat.

Here is what I think... the more total energy in a local system, the more extreme the sink required to acquire temporary stasis. What the sink mechanism might vary due to latitude and continentality, but as you reach a new quantum level in the planetary climate system and jump to it, you need to start packing an umbrella, burnoose, snowshoes, and a homing beacon... for one outing!
An awful number of outdoor sports events here in spring and fall here in the US midwest will be canceled due to softball sized hail.

Here is my other crackpot statement-- I think the 'jet contrails' conspiracy theories have it wrong. The persistent and propagating contrails have to due with more moisture higher into the stratosphere from hotter oceans. a small disturbance like a jet contrail, and the supersaturate (for that temp and pressure) air condenses like the sudden ice layer in the water-glass.


Man our children's children are going to hate the mention of our names.

[EST]

2. Sorry.

His "evidence has emerged" glittering generalities leave me cold...and damp.
Claiming an inability to understand cannot pass for scientific research. Reminds me entirely too much of "creation science" aficionados.

No sale.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Hmmm...

I'm not convinced, since any one brought up properly in Britain would not have milky tea, but just a slight dribble of milk - assuming they didn't have lemon. :D

And I'd agree with EST that "it has emerged" is not convincing. If I had a bad Mutton Phall and went to to toilet, I might say "It Has Emerged" but when weighing up the lives of ~200,000,000 Northern Europeans I'd want something a little more, err, solid.

:evilgrin: It's been a long day. Appologies to the offended.

I think I'd rather go back through it and check the ref'd papers if I can, and draw my own conclusions.

[depakid]

4. Apparently, the conclusions are not

based on the scantly cited material.

I checked before I posted.

[Odin2005]

5. This guy is a crank.