Weather Banter - View Single Post

Keith Dancey · June 16th 05, 10:16 AM posted to uk.sci.weather

In article , (Adrian D. Shaw) writes:

I really hope someone else who knows better than me will comment on this
(below); it certainly goes against a lot that I've been taught in the past.

Adrian

Felly sgrifennodd
Alastair McDonald :

I was talking about the science, not the wild speculation of a few
oceanographers who do not know the first thing about weather. They
seem to think that the because the THC is global it can affect the
climate globally. What they fail to understand is the half of the flow
of the THC is at the bottom of the ocean where it has no effect on
the climate what so ever.

They are unaware that it is the diversion of the westerlies by the
Rockies over the warmer seas of the souhtern North Atlantic which
causes the prevailing south westerly air flow over the British Isles -
not the Coriolis effect. And it is this air flow which keeps Britain
warmer than Newfoundland, not the North Atlantic Drift which passes
to the north of Britain.

As I have said before, I am not a meteorologist - nor a climatologist - but
I do help produce the world's most accurate time series of SSTs, so I have
an interest in, and some knowledge of, the subject. That does not make me
someone who "knows better than Adrian", but I will comment anyway:-)

What Alastair says about the effect of the NAD on the climate of the UK is
substantially correct, AFAIK. The energy provided by the air flow greatly
exceeds the energy provided by the NAD. If the THC shuts down, there will
be a cooling effect on the UK climate, but it may not be sufficient to
cancel out the warming effect of increased CO2, even in the short term. And
in the longer term, of course, it will become even less significant.

However, if the THC shuts down I would expect the effects to be global -
precisely because it is a global event - but I wouldn't attempt to predict
what those effects were because I am not an oceanographer either. New, or
amended, circulations would result, I presume...

No oceanographers have ever posted to this newsgroup, I believe, so we are
left speculating on this aspect with little expertise.

Cheers,

keith

---
Iraq: 6.5 thousand million pounds, 80 UK lives, and counting...
100,000+ civilian casualties, largely of coalition bombing...