Researchers find Force Behind Cold Weather in North America

Snow cover over North America and Europe in March, 2003, as imaged by a satellite instrument. – Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio; George Riggs

Researchers have announced that they have uncovered the driving force behind the recent below average winter temperatures in North America. According to their research, published in the March 31 issue of Nature, it is the warm water off of the northeastern coast of the U.S. and Canada.

While those living in North America will tell you that the weather has been unusually cold and snowy this year, but for those at the same latitudes on the other side of the Atlantic, it’s a different story. On average the winter in Western Europe has been about 10 degrees warmer than usual on average.

This is nothing completely new however, as the same thing happens, because of the warm waters in the Pacific, on the west coast of North America compared to Northeast Asia.

“These warm ocean waters off the eastern coasts actually make it cold in winter–it’s counterintuitive,” says Tapio Schneider, a geoscientist at Caltech. “Traditional wisdom has it that Western Europe is warm because of the Gulf Stream, but this paper presents evidence that atmospheric circulation plays an important role in maintaining the colder temperatures found on the eastern boundaries of the mid-latitude continents.”

The findings show that the Gulf Stream cools the air over North America and then warms the air which makes its way over the European continent.

 -NSF-