What is the Gulf Stream and why is it important?

What is the Gulf Stream and why is it important?

Originating at the tip of Florida, the Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean current that follows the eastern coastline of the US and Canada before crossing the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe. It ensures that the climate of Western Europe is much warmer than it would otherwise be.

What would happen if the Gulf Stream stopped?

It would disrupt monsoon seasons and rains in places like India, South America and West Africa, affecting crop production and creating food shortages for billions of people. The decline of the Amazonian rainforest and the Antarctic ice sheets would also be put into fast forward.

Is the Gulf Stream collapsing?

The Gulf Stream is nearing a Critical point of Collapse, new data shows, with the Weakening Ocean Current impacting the Global Weather. The Gulf Stream has weakened substantially in the past decades, as new data and studies show.

How is Gulf Stream formed?

The Gulf Stream is formed from the convergence of the North Atlantic Equatorial Current bringing tropical water from the east, and the Florida Current that brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf Stream takes this warm water and transports it northwards along the U.S. east coast (Figure 9.2. 2).

What makes the Gulf Stream unique?

The Gulf Stream not only helps to redistribute heat by carrying warm waters towards the North Pole, but also has a large impact on the climate on land by bringing humid, mild air to the British Isles and Northwest Europe, causing significantly milder winters than at the same latitudes in the West.

Why is it called the Gulf Stream?

Franklin even suggested the name "Gulf Stream," even though it is a huge, circular motion in the Atlantic Ocean and has little to do with the Gulf of Mexico. Later, corrections to Franklin's postulates were made for ocean bottom changes, declinations of the moon and surface wind effects.

How cold would Europe be without the Gulf Stream?

Western Europe would get plunged into a deep freeze. And so would North America. The average temperature of Europe would drop by up to 10 °C (18°F). Ice storms would rampage through Spain, France, Portugal and the UK.

What would Ireland be like without the Gulf Stream?

Without the Gulf Stream, he said, Ireland would have winters similar to Toronto where, despite being at a lower latitude, temperatures are below zero for much of the winter. ... “ A slowdown in AMOC would see more intense winter storms, colder harsher conditions in winter and potentially drought conditions in summer .”

What happens if Atlantic current stops?

If this circulation shuts down, it could bring extreme cold to Europe and parts of North America, raise sea levels along the U.S. East Coast and disrupt seasonal monsoons that provide water to much of the world, the Washington Post said.

What happens if AMOC collapse?

Many parts of Europe would also experience severe flooding and winter storms. "For Western Africa," Boers says, "it has been suggested that an AMOC collapse could lead to permanent drought conditions."

What is the purpose of the Gulf Stream?

• The Gulf Stream. Beginning in the Caribbean and ending in the northern North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream System is one of the world's most intensely studied current systems. This extensive western boundary current plays an important role in the poleward transfer of heat and salt and serves to warm the European subcontinent.

What is true about the Gulf Stream?

• The Gulf Stream is a western boundary current; its behavior is determined by the North American coastline. Trade winds from Africa drive water in the Atlantic westward until it hits the coastline and gets pushed northward. ... In turn, the Gulf Stream affects the climate of the areas closest to the current by transferring tropical heat toward the northern latitudes.

Is the Gulf Stream a cold current or warm?

• The Gulf Stream is a warm ocean current in the North Atlantic that flows from the Gulf of Mexico, northeast along the U.S coast, and from there to the British Isles. The Gulf Stream has a strong effect on the climate pattern in the British Isles.

Why is the Gulf Stream important to US?

• The Gulf Stream is the most important ocean-current system in the northern hemisphere. As an important weather driving force, the warm water temperatures of the Gulf Stream is the reason why there are mild winters and warm humid summers in North America.