John Hall wrote:

In article
,
Len Wood writes:
snip
I have another gripe:
Sarah Davies (Met Office) churned out the old chestnut:
'Britian is kept warm most winters because we have the Gulf
Stream....so for our latitude we are quite mild compared with the rest
of the world'.
Mostly untrue.

Britain is kept warm because we are downwind of the relatively warm N.
Atlantic. Labrador at the same lat. on other side of the ocean is
downwind of the cold N. American continent.
It is the prevailing westerly winds that keep us warm. The Gulf Stream
plays only a small part in comparison.

Yes, that annoyed me too. Meteorologists these days seem mostly to have
degrees in physics rather than geography, which may help to explain it.

The science of meteorology is primarily a branch of physics with a lot of
mathematics thrown in for good measure. It's not a branch of geography. Some
aspects of climatology, though, are very closely linked to geography. It's not
easy to draw sharp dividing lines.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.