February 23,2019

Spring has already arrived in London, where our daughter is attending university. This is in contrast to the situation here in Northeast Ohio, where we have another month or two of wintry weather ahead of us.

London’s mild climate is a little surprising since the city is pretty far north. If London were to be dragged westward to North America, it would be located in the upper reaches of Hudson Bay. The European city that is at the same latitude as Cleveland is not Oslo or Stockholm, which you might assume as you slog through another endless winter, but is Rome, whose Mediterranean climate is far milder than ours.

February in London (photo by Melina Topp)

The difference, of course, is the warming effect of the North Atlantic current, which significantly moderates Europe’s climate.

We may get our revenge, though, when warming sea temperatures and the melting icecap in Greenland disrupt the North Atlantic currents, turning off Europe’s supply of warmer water and lowering the winter temperature of the continent significantly.