Lattitude of Spain and Italy
mattep74 said:
what happened to all europeans? Did we all die? Somehow i dont belive that Spain and Italy would froze. They are to close to the equatorian hadley cell
Spain is at the same lattitude as the Middle Atlantic states of America. Spain is warmer than New York because they have the warm North Atlantic to windward and because they are also on the Mediterranean. The North Atlantic is warm because warm water is less dense than cold water, so it floats north to displace sinking cold water from the Arctic. The Mediterranean is warm because the cold water has a hard time getting in because the entrance to the Mediterranean is higher than the level of the cold botom water from the ocean.
If the Arctic gets fresher because of meltwater, then the fresh water will not sink no matter how cold it gets because it is still less dense than seawater, even if the seawater is warm. The Gulf stream is part of this world circling cycle called the Conveyor Belt.
There is also some effect from winds that blow from the south as the Corriolis force sends air to the east, and as the mountains and weather cylces make the winds wiggle north and south, transferring heat. The Hadley cells that rise from the equator and fall to the north and create deserts also pump heat to the north. They are not affected by the salinity of seawater.
There have been periods when it got very cold around the Mediterranean. The weather could change to make Spain colder, and also moister. This would be bad for tourism and good for farmers. It would not be good for the nonmediterranean Europeans, most of whom would starve to death. But then, the Arabs would have lots of rain and woudl presumably be able to grow enough food for the Europeans to buy that no one would actually starve. Unless the Arabs started the Organisation of Potato Exporting Countries.
