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[–] 6 points 1 day ago (21 children)
  • [–] 25 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    (AFAIK) Ocean currents and winds (until now) regulated the weather in Europe. When that's gone, it will be wise for half of Europe to acquire a cargo sled.

    https://geographyclassroom.com/gulf-stream-and-europes-weather/

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Continental versus marine climates. Water has a lot of thermal mass, and it moderates the diurnal and seasonal temperature swings in areas near bodies of water. With the jetstream moving weather west-to-east at these northern latitudes, air masses moving across Canada cool off over the land mass of the continent before hitting the central and eastern cities. It's also much warmer in the summer in those places, for the same reason.

    Even if AMOC shuts off completely, Europe generally will be somewhat warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer, than Canada.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Even if AMOC shuts off completely, Europe generally will be somewhat warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer, than Canada.

    I hope you're right, but research has recently suggested that the Little Ice Age was caused by the AMOC shutting down in the early 1400s.

    The Little Ice Age was one of the coldest periods of the past 10,000 years, a period of cooling that was particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. This cold spell, whose precise timeline scholars debate, but which seems to have set in around 600 years ago, was responsible for crop failures, famines and pandemics throughout Europe, resulting in misery and death for millions.

    ...

    But in the late 1300s, AMOC strengthened significantly [due to increased solar activity], which meant that far more warm water than usual was moving north, which in turn cause rapid arctic ice loss. Over the course of a few decades in the late 1300s and 1400s, vast amounts of ice were flushed out into the North Atlantic, which not only cooled the North Atlantic waters, but also diluted their saltiness, ultimately causing AMOC to collapse. It is this collapse that then triggered a substantial cooling.

    If this research is correct, losing the AMOC again could cause a huge crisis for Europe.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    Yes, I agree. No doubt that it'd cause a major crisis in Europe, and I didn't intend to imply otherwise. Its people, agriculture, buildings, and infrastructure are all adapted to the current climate, and a sudden shift will be very hard to handle. We saw that with the heat waves this past summer. Phoenix, Arizona routinely handles higher temperatures, but the buildings there are all equipped for it, while ventilation and air conditioning are not common in much of Europe.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (13 children)

    Elevation maybe? Most of Canada is pretty high up from sea level. Dunno how much of Europe would be the same.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (12 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago* (5 children)

    Could be multiple factors no? It can’t just be the one.

    Alberta is still really freaking cold, and there is warm air coming up the mountain range all the time.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Alberta is landlocked, isn't it? Places deep inside a continent are always much more variable in annual climate than coastal places, as the ocean has such vast thermal inertia.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (1 child)

    Yes, but that doesn’t apply unilaterally, the east coast gets pretty harsh winters compared to the west. The west coast hardly gets snow. The east coast constantly gets multi foot snowfalls and -30c weather.

    Even New York in the USA gets blanketed with snow frequently.

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  • [–] 1 point 16 hours ago

    Blame it on the Canadians 🤪

    It’s all lake/ocean affect, cold wind picking up moisture from large bodies of water. For example the Great Lakes are a significant source of lake affect snow in some of the snowiest parts of the northeast.

    But here along the coast the nor’easter is the storm to watch for. Basically storms come up the coast until Canada stops it at the border. Then the storm hangs out off the coast of main and the winds at the back of the storm picks up all that moisture from the ocean and send it into new england

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    It can be multiple factors, but a lot of it is AMOC.

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  • [–] 1 point 16 hours ago

    I think Boston is the more apt comparison to Europe . Yes it’s AMOC on the east coast. We’re also somewhat moderated by the coast. However further inland temperature swings are more severe because of prevailing winds crossing all that land

    Either way, it’s not that Canada is further south than you’d expect but that Europe is much further north than their weather would have you believe. AMOC slowing or even stopping is going to be a problem. Someone pointed out food - if temperature trends move where food can be grown or even prevent it in some countries

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (5 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    I know I could google it, I was just prodding the folks who drop nothing but an acronym to provide a little more explanation in with their post than just some uncommon letter string. The other posts that explain it weren’t there at the time of my post.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Atlantic meridional overturning current. It’s an ocean current that draws warm water up from the east coast of South/Central America, north and eastward

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