So is The Day After Tomorrow about to become a reality, and are we going to plunge into another ice age?

It’s highly unlikely, but that does not mean the film is a complete fabrication.

“The Day After Tomorrow is clearly a very extreme version,” Dr David Thornalley, a climate scientist at University College London and co-author of one of the studies, told The Independent.

“The science behind it says that the shutdown – the severe weakening of the Atlantic circulation – has happened in the past and during the last ice age it happened a number of times.”

Fluctuations in the Amoc have in the past contributed to major climate changes, including the onset of the last ice age.

While a sudden shutdown now would probably not cause disaster on a Hollywood scale, its effects would certainly be dramatic, and characterised by extreme weather across the Atlantic region.

“If the more extreme case happened with the shutdown of the circulation then yes it is the case that Britain could cool – and it could cool by quite a lot, maybe 5 degrees Celsius,” said Dr Thornalley.

“The circulation is one of Earth’s tipping points, and it remains the case that it could suddenly collapse,” he continued.