In Western Europe, as well as on the east coast of the United States, the climate is quite mild. So on the coast of Florida, the average water temperature is very rarely below 22 ° Celsius. This is during the winter months. In summer, the air heats up to 36 ° -39 ° Celsius with humidity reaching 100%. This temperature regime extends far east and north. It covers the states: Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, and North and South Carolina.
All these administrative entities lie in an area of humid subtropical climate, where the average daily summer temperature does not fall below 25 ° Celsius, and very rarely drops to 0 ° Celsius in the winter months.
If we take Western Europe, then the Iberian, Apennine and Balkan peninsulas, as well as the entire southern part of France, are located in the subtropical zone. Summer temperature in it fluctuates between 26 ° -28 ° Celsius. In winter, these figures drop to 2 ° -5 ° Celsius, but almost never reach 0 °.
In Scandinavia, the average winter temperature ranges from minus 4 ° to 2 ° Celsius. In the summer months, it rises to 8 ° -14 °. That is, even in the northern regions, the climate is quite acceptable and suitable for comfortable living.
Gulf Stream
This temperature blessing takes place in a huge region for a reason. It is directly connected with the Gulf Stream ocean current. It is he who forms the climate and gives people the opportunity to enjoy warm weather almost all year round.
The Gulf Stream is a whole system of warm currents in the North Atlantic Ocean. Its full length covers a distance of 10 thousand kilometers from the sultry coast of Florida to the ice-covered islands of Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya. Huge masses of water begin their movement in the Florida Strait. Their volume reaches 25 million cubic meters per second.
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The Gulf Stream moves slowly and majestically along the eastern coast of North America and crosses 40 ° N. sh. It meets the Labrador Current near Newfoundland Island. The latter brings cold waters to the south and forces warm streams of water to turn to the east.
After such a collision, the Gulf Stream splits into two currents. One rushes north and turns into the North Atlantic Current. It is this that forms the climate in Western Europe. The remaining mass reaches the coast of Spain and turns south. Off the coast of Africa, it meets the North Tradewind Current and deviates westward, ending its journey in the Sargasso Sea, which is just a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico. Then the cycle of huge masses of water is repeated.
This has been going on for millennia. Sometimes a mighty warm current weakens, slows down, reduces heat transfer, and then cold falls to the ground. An example of this is the Little Ice Age. Europeans observed it in the XIV-XIX centuries. Every heat-loving inhabitant of Europe has experienced firsthand what a real frosty snowy winter is.
True, before that, in the VIII-XIII centuries, there was a noticeable warming. In other words, the Gulf Stream was gaining strength and was giving off a very large amount of heat into the atmosphere. Accordingly, on the lands of the European continent, the weather was very warm, and snowy cold winters were not observed for centuries.
Nowadays, the mighty warm streams of water also affect the climate as in the old days. Under the sun, nothing has changed, and the laws of nature have remained the same. But man has stepped very far in his technical progress. His tireless work has provoked the Greenhouse Effect.
The result was the melting of the ice in Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. Huge masses of fresh water poured into the salt water and rushed south. Nowadays, this situation is already beginning to affect the mighty warm current. Some experts predict a quick stop of the Gulf Stream, as it will not be able to cope with the influx of incoming waters. This will lead to a sharp cooling in Western Europe and on the east coast of North America.
The situation was aggravated by the largest accident at the Tiber oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. Under water in the bowels of the earth, geologists have found huge reserves of oil, estimated at 1.8 billion tons. Experts have drilled a well, the depth of which was 10,680 meters. Of these, 1259 meters fell on the ocean water column. In April 2010, a fire broke out on an oil platform. It blazed for two days and killed 11 people. But it was, though tragic, but a prelude to what happened after that.
The burned-out platform sank, and oil began to flow from the well into the open ocean. According to official sources, 700 tons of oil entered the waters of the Gulf of Mexico per day. However, independent experts gave a different figure - 13.5 thousand tons per day.
The oil film, huge in its area, fettered the movement of Atlantic waters, and this, accordingly, began to negatively affect the heat transfer. From here there was a disruption in the circulation of the Atlantic air currents. They already lacked the strength to move eastward and form the usual mild climate there.
The result was a terrible heat wave in Eastern Europe in the summer of 2010, when the air temperature rose to 45 ° Celsius. The winds from North Africa provoked similar. They, not meeting any resistance on their way, brought a hot and dry cyclone to the north. It hovered over a huge territory and stayed above it for almost two months, destroying all living things.
At the same time, Western Europe was shaken by terrible floods, as the heavy, moisture-filled clouds coming from the Atlantic did not have the strength to break through the dry and hot front. They were forced to dump tons of water on the ground. All this provoked a sharp rise in the level of rivers and, as a result, various disasters and human tragedies.
What are the immediate prospects, and what awaits old Europe in the near future? Experts say that dramatic climatic changes will begin to be felt as early as 2015. Cooling and rising sea levels await Western Europe. This will provoke the impoverishment of the middle class, as its money is invested in real estate, which will plummet in value.
This will create political and social tensions in all sectors of society. The consequences of this can be the most tragic. It is simply impossible to predict something specific, since there are many scenarios for the development of events. One thing is clear: hard times are coming.
The Gulf Stream, today, thanks to global warming and the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, has practically closed itself into a ring and does not provide sufficient thermal energy to the North Atlantic Current. Accordingly, air flows are disrupted. Quite different winds begin to dominate over European territory. The usual climatic balance is disturbed - this is already noticeable with the naked eye.
In such a situation, anyone can be seized by a sense of anxiety and despair. Of course, not for the fate of hundreds of millions of people, since it is too vague and unclear, but for the specific fate of their relatives and friends. But to despair, and even more so to panic, is premature. Nobody knows how it will actually be there.
The future is full of surprises. It is entirely possible that global warming is not at all. This is a common rise in temperatures within the climate cycle. Its duration is 60 years. That is, for six decades, the temperature on the planet has been steadily increasing, and the next 60 years it has been slowly decreasing. The beginning of the last cycle dates back to the end of 1979. It turns out that half of the way has already been passed and only 30 years are left to be patient.
The Gulf Stream is too powerful a stream of water to just take and change direction or disappear. There may be some failures and deviations, but they will never turn into global and irreversible processes. There are simply no prerequisites for this. At least these days they are not observed.
Yuri Syromyatnikov