Current changes could cool UK
Posted: Friday, June 22, 2001
(BBC) Scientists say they have found further evidence that the currents in the North Atlantic are changing. They say the amount of cold water flowing south from the Arctic has fallen significantly in the last 50 years.
This could affect the Gulf Stream, which helps to give the UK and north west Europe their temperate climate. One estimate suggests that without the Gulf Stream winter temperatures in the UK could fall by an average of 11 degrees C, giving parts of the country the same temperatures as Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago 750 miles from the North Pole.
The scientists believe it could be another effect of the changing climate.
The scientists, from the Faroe Islands, Norway and the UK, report their findings in the magazine Nature. They measured the flow of cold, dense Arctic water across the Faroe Bank channel, which lies between the Faroes and Shetland, the island group north of the Scottish mainland. More
Send page by E-Mail