Re: Weather And Latitude Are Not Allies
- From: oriel36 <kelleher.gerald@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:59:21 -0800 (PST)
On 28 Jan, 04:32, xiko...@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
There is a popular assumption that if you move to higher latitudes
(toward the poles) you can escape the heat, and that by moving to
lower latitudes (toward the equator) you can escape the cold.
The equation is simple. But is it real? If it was, then the most
northerly capital, Reykjavík, would also be the coldest...at least
until they establish a country on Antarctica. Yes, it appears that
latitude is slacking off and failing to keep temperatures in line.
This was brought home to me when preparing for a radio interview in
Dublin, Ireland. February had just roiled in and I was sitting back
comfortably in my good old Ottawa weather, scraping icicles off my
toes. I was giddy with excitement over our warm spell, which it was
reaching a high of minus-5 (that's about 20-degrees American). I
always ask questions the day before an interview, to learn a bit about
my audience, so I asked the producer, "So what's the weather forecast
in Dublin?" asked.
"Oh it's horrible," she told me. "People are bracing for a deep winter
freeze that's supposed to hit tonight. It might even get as cold as
minus-5!"
This blew me away, that the folks in Dublin would be worried about the
thermometer dips as low as ours spikes high. After all, isn't Dublin
about the same latitude as Ottawa?
I whipped out my trusty atlas. We live almost exactly on the 45th
parallel. If we lived exactly on it, we would have to share our bed
with a cow and a dozen chickens across the road - that's how close we
are.
I turned the pages to find Ireland. Could I have been mistaken? Is
Dublin really quite south of us? No, it turns out that Dublin lies at
the 53rd parallel. Hey! They should
http://www.dontplayplay.com/html/Humor/20060929/25512.html
It is easier to understand what occurs at different locations along
the same latitude when you take a look at the Earth from a wider
viewpoint,such as this graphic showing temperature oscillations -
http://www.climateprediction.net/images/sci_images/annual.gif
Proximity to a maritime climate alters the meteorological conditions
where ,continental landmasses tend to generate extreme variations
whereas ocean climates tend to modify the background conditions,you
can just see the colder blue areas of North Eastern Canada in contrast
to the warmer red areas of the Western European isles .
The major cause of the background conditions where Dublin Gets rain
whereas Ottawa will gets snow is closely related to the length of time
a location spends in solar radiation and in the orbital shadow of the
Earth (commonly known as the length of daylight to darkness) and the
surface geography (whether it is continental landmass or
Ocean).Unfortunately,the older and less accurate view prevails based
on variable axial inclination to the Sun.
This would normally be a thriving subject for astronomers,Copernicus
was the first to propose axial/equatorial inclination to the Sun toi
explain the seasons but this is a very different and less vibrant era
and there is not the slightest sign that a required modification is
long overdue.
.
- References:
- Weather And Latitude Are Not Allies
- From: xikom01
- Weather And Latitude Are Not Allies
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