921
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The mainland US is crazily far south. I thought Washington would be level with London

[-] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 5 days ago

I have always felt the opposite. Europe is way further north than I would have expected given their climate. I realize now it is kept warm by the gulf steam and North America get that in reverse, hence really cold eastern Canada and New England.

[-] alpine_jim@piefed.social 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

No reverse. New England and eastern Canada are warmed by the same currents too, albeit not as much. The heat generally comes from the Caribbean. North Korea and Hokkaido have far colder winters and milder summers at similar latitude.

[-] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago

I believe you actually have it backwards. Europe is warmed by the gulf steam, it cools off on the way back to Canada and the US. If the Gulf Steam is disrupted as predicted, the UK is going to be in for a really cold time.

[-] alpine_jim@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago

the cold water returning to the tropics flows deep under the warmer surface waters and has much less effect on land temperatures.

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/12/atlantic-circulation-collapse-new-clues-on-the-fate-of-a-crucial-conveyor-belt/

this is where i got the claim from, that NE USA and E Canada would also cool down with no AMOC. (the sea-level rise in that region would be an even bigger problem though)

[-] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago

I think you may be misreading the map from that link a bit because it is fairly low detail and doesn't point out the landmarks very well. The "gyre" as it is referred to in the linked page doesn't really reach the northeast US much at all, it mostly stops at around the area between NC and VA where the coast protrudes. If you want to see a cool image based on satellite data that shows it off, check this out (https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/worldview-image-archive/gulf-stream). That being said, some of that warm water does still affect a the NE US a bit (not so much for Canada), so the gulf stream faltering will make it colder, just not as dramatically as places like the UK which based on latitude would likely have temperatures closer to Sweden and Norway.

[-] wuffwuffwuff@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

Your comment six hours ago had a claim that eastern Canada and New England were cooled by the amoc. I think that was the only thing the other poster was going against. Your recent comment now agrees that eastern Canada and New England would be colder without the amoc.

[-] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago

It wasn't clear at all that was all that other commenter disagreed with. Also Eastern Canada and New Edgland are cooled by it. It isn't as much of an effect because the cold water sink, but it most certainly affects it.

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Well, and it's crazy how cold the middle and eastern parts of North America get.

Boston and Chicago are famously cold cities. Chicago is exactly parallel with Rome; Boston is only 50km north of Rome. Rome, Barcelona, even Tblisi - all about 10+ degrees C (so 20 degrees F) more mild in the winter than Chicago. The entirety of continental France, including its southern coast, is north of Boston. Paris is almost far enough north to be exactly at the long E-W US/Canada border. Yet rarely gets below freezing.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

The entirety of France, including its southern coast, is north of Boston.

Acktyually, the southernmost point in France is 50°01′ South (Îles de Boynes in the southern Indian Ocean). 🤓

Somewhat more legitimately, there are also inhabited French lands further south than Boston: Corsica, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Réunion, etc. Corsica even counts as "Metropolitan France" (as opposed to "Overseas France") while still -- barely -- beating Boston by about 1°.

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 5 points 5 days ago

That's why I said "continental France" and certainly didn't edit my typo.

[-] JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago

And it's not even just the northern parts. Here in the Ozarks we see everything from sub zero temps to over 100 every year.

[-] pachrist@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Latitude is crazy. London would sit in the Hudson Bay, and Atlanta is a similar latitude to Casablanca or Baghdad.

[-] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago

The UK is the most fun one to do comparisons with. The north end of Scotland is at the same latitude as Churchill, Manitoba. Churchill has polar bears.

this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2026
921 points (99.0% liked)

Funny: Home of the Haha

9741 readers
1100 users here now

Welcome to /c/funny, a place for all your humorous and amusing content.

Looking for mods! Send an application to Stamets!

Our Rules:

  1. Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.

  2. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.

  3. Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.


Other Communities:

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS