In January 2010 Scotland and British Isles faced the most severe winter in decades with the temperatures dropping to a record level of -21°C in Highlands. Snow and ice covered United Kingdom for about three weeks - the longest cold snap for almost 30 years. Airports, roads, trains and other usual public activities were affected by severe weather.
This type of weather is highly unusual as winter in Scotland is often not as cold as you might expect given the latitude of the country.
For the last few years we have heard of how global warming is affecting our lives, however, considering 2010 severe winter we may become sceptical and ask ourselves how is it possible? We may doubt that global warming is really happening.
To explain the above questions we should look closer on the reasons why British Isles are reasonably warm during winter months i.e. a lot warmer than you might find in Russia or Canada at equivalent latitudes. In short it is due to the Gulf Stream - a powerful ocean current which brings warm waters from the tropics and make the winter in UK reasonably mild. So is the Gulf Stream weakening and if so how is it related to the global warming?
This year’s severe winter may paradoxically be a consequence of global warming. Due to steady increase of the temperature on our planet an ice from Greenland and Arctic icecaps is melting quickly. The increased fresh meltwater pour into the Northern Atlantic and make it less saline. Less saline cold water sinks slower which is in turn the cause of slowing down the engine which drives the Gulf Stream.
The fact of weakening of the Gulf Stream has been previously highlighted by Ian Sample - a science correspondent for the Guardian in the article “Alarm over dramatic weakening of Gulf Stream”. From the article we read: “Researchers on a scientific expedition in the Atlantic Ocean measured the strength of the current between Africa and the east coast of America and found that the circulation has slowed by 30% since a previous expedition 12 years ago.”
Does it mean that we will have to face severe winter conditions each year? In the aforementioned article we can also read: “Most of the cooling would be in the winter, so the biggest impact would be much colder winters," said Tim Osborn, of the University of East Anglia climatic research unit”.
Published on 9th January 2010
By Arek Zasowski
Photographs by Arek and Viola Zasowski
SCOTLAND
Severe Winter of 2010
Other interesting articles:
Ocean changes 'will cool Europe' - BBC
Gulf Stream 'engine' weakening, say scientists - The Independent
Weakening in Gulf Stream will slow global warming - The Tech Herald
El Niño/La Niña - National Geographic
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