Britain Braced for Coldest Winter since 62/63

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
For example, if climate change his big time, the fresh water entering into the Atlantic from the melting ice caps will close down the so-called Atlantic Conveyer, which brings warm water up into the North Atlantic. Thus, the winds that blow across the Atlantic and into Europe will become much colder, giving Europe a mini-Ice Age.

The gulf stream not the real heat conveyor?

[CivGeneral]

I wonder if the east coast of the US would be effected :hmm:

[Berzerker]

Doddler gave no source, but I presume what was written is historical or fictional. Britain is not covered in snow at the moment.

Apparently some clever so-and-so has pieced together the synoptic charts from October 1963 and October 2007, and they are as similar as those charts can get.

I was merely pointing out October is not winter. I thought the quote I used related to the above statement.

Water can carry a lot more energy than air. Any theory that says that it's the winds and not the oceans that effect the climate more has some serious physics to get past.

It doesn't matter if those winds are in the opposite direction. The reason NW Europe is warm is because the winds come from the same direction the waters come from. Shift those winds around and Britain enters a cold snap inspite of those warm waters. The energy in those waters cannot readily transfer to the land if the winds are blowing out to sea, and while Britain is surrounded by water, the North Sea is not nearly as warm and more subject to Arctic cooling.

From Dino's link

New research shows that the Gulf Stream has little effect on the contrast in winter temperatures between Europe and eastern North America, dispelling a long-held assumption. Instead, atmospheric circulation, augmented by the Rocky Mountains, plays a larger role, say Richard Seager of Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, David Battisti of the University of Washington and their colleagues.

There is a theory that our more geologically recent ice ages began as the Himalayas were climbing into the sky ~40 mya.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Sandman
Oh goody. More '2cm of snow causing chaos' news stories and Poly threads to look forward to.

More like 2 feet

[Dr Strangelove]

We've actually been continuing to get 80 and 90 degree temperatures during the day, until today the temperature peaked at 65 degrees.