I read in today's news that science, through new satelite imaging, has "discovered" an unexpected cold spot in the North Atlantic south of Iceland, reawakening the theory that cold fresh meltwater from the coastal glaciers of Greenland is upsetting the normal flow of the Gulf Stream. As we know, the Gulf Stream is the main reason why North-Western Europe has a liveable climate.
A quick visit with some facts should suggest that this is another piece of climate nonsense.
The Gulf Stream begins upstream of Cape Hatteras on the U.S. East Coast as a continuation of the Florida Current. The Stream changes directions during the year, shifting north in the fall and south in winter and early spring. Once the Gulf Stream reaches the Grand Banks, its structure changes from a single meandering front to multiple branching fronts. One branch becomes the North Atlantic Current, curving north along the continental shelf and eventually turning east between latitudes 50 and 52 North towards Northern Europe. The other branch becomes the Azores Current, flowing south-eastwards towards the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and recirculating off the coast of West Africa.
The dreaded North Atlantic cold spot is situated near the fork in the currents, which does not seem particularly unexpected to me.
The Gulf Stream transports about 110 million cubic meters of warm water per second at an average speed of 6.5 kilometers per hour. This works out to 3.5 million cubic kilometers per year, an amount of water greater than that carried by all the world's rivers combined.
The melt water released by Greenland's coastal glaciers amounts to about 200 cubic kilometers per year, 0.006% of the amount of Gulf Stream waters passing that way.
With this kind of proportional relationship, it is going to take some convincing as far as I am concerned that we are up against a major climate event.
