I find that so crazy. I’m German and for us Italy is always the sunny south where it gets much too hot for us. The USA iseems more like us climate-wise.
I’d always thought New York would be a little like Berlin.
Crazy to see how far south most of the US actually is.
In addition to there being a huge mountain range in the way. The Alps block/slow down a lot of the cold air currents that do make their way down from the polar regions. That’s why cities like Turin and Milan still have cold climates in the north. Cold air still makes it’s way over the Alps but is slowed and is reheated as it travels south so cities like Genoa/Florence/Rome are much milder in the winter.
A large part of it is also simply the fact that at the midlatitudes westerlies dominate, which means that western Europe receives mild air from the ocean, while the US east cost receives more extreme weather from the continent.
The weather in New England and upper New York is very much like German weather, and sometimes worse. We’ve had snow on the grounds since the 30th of November and it’s only barely reached 0C in the last week.
It was -15C a couple nights ago at roughly the latitude of Rome, next to the ocean too. And only about 50km northwest (inland) it went down to -25C.
This has been a colder December than average for the last decade, but we have mountains that regularly get meters of snow each winter, and they are way lower elevation than the alps too. Also as we all know the last decade has been stoopid warm.
Mt Washington has measured the highest wind speed in the world.
Imagine the chaos in Europe if the ocean currents fail to bring warm temps up from the tropics and the UK, Germany, etc all start to get weather similar to mid-northern Canada which even Canadians try their best to avoid.
The US is fucking huge. A lot of our weather up north is closer to yours, but we’ve got deserts, rainforests, Florida is just outside of the tropics, etc. There’s a huge variety of climates here. The US is larger than all of Europe, by quite a margin. East to west it’s wider than Lisbon, Spain to Moscow, Russia. North to South it’s pretty much identical to Europe. (Technically Europe is slightly larger with the Scandinavian countries sticking out pretty far north.)
The US is fucking huge…The US is larger than all of Europe, by quite a margin
It is hilarious to imagine if this were real. Like what would European explorers and Settlers have done if they started mapping it out and went “wait a minute…”
I mean, you’d lose most of the Appalachian Mountains which as one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world means losing a ton of ancient fossils that helped piece together the biological history of Earth. I’d also be curious how the glaciers would be impacted given how heavily they shaped much of North America
You also lose several major cities including Toronto and St Louis, Canada loses most of its habitable land (assuming the climate isn’t significantly impacted by the existence of a second Mediterranean Sea, which it definitely would be) Chicago is going to be quite different but probably an even more important port city in such a world. Las Vegas is now a port city, so probably less casinos and more just major city. My wife would be sad because the Quad Cities (a metro area on the Iowa/Illinois border) wouldn’t exist and she really likes that area. I’d be sad because the Mississippi River would be much short and therefore way less cool. But it’s a really wild concept that gets crazier the more you think about it
I like to point out that New York to LA os essentially the same distance as Moscow to Lisbon, while Seattle to Miami os about the same as London to Baghdad. That’s why St. Louis was the furthest west MLB team until the 50’s. The logistics for US sports are insane
Gibraltar is about the same latitude as the Virgina/North Carolina state line. So southern Europe essentially ends halfway down the US Eastern seaboard
I find that so crazy. I’m German and for us Italy is always the sunny south where it gets much too hot for us. The USA iseems more like us climate-wise. I’d always thought New York would be a little like Berlin. Crazy to see how far south most of the US actually is.
AMOC doing some heavy lifiting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturning_circulation
That one is getting phased out though.
Yeah I’ve been getting deprecation warnings about that every time I start
./the-beachIt still has a runtime dependency on AMOCAlso the Mediterranean acts like a huge heat buffer. It basically stops the polar winds from reaching southern Europe.
In addition to there being a huge mountain range in the way. The Alps block/slow down a lot of the cold air currents that do make their way down from the polar regions. That’s why cities like Turin and Milan still have cold climates in the north. Cold air still makes it’s way over the Alps but is slowed and is reheated as it travels south so cities like Genoa/Florence/Rome are much milder in the winter.
A large part of it is also simply the fact that at the midlatitudes westerlies dominate, which means that western Europe receives mild air from the ocean, while the US east cost receives more extreme weather from the continent.
The weather in New England and upper New York is very much like German weather, and sometimes worse. We’ve had snow on the grounds since the 30th of November and it’s only barely reached 0C in the last week.
It was -15C a couple nights ago at roughly the latitude of Rome, next to the ocean too. And only about 50km northwest (inland) it went down to -25C.
This has been a colder December than average for the last decade, but we have mountains that regularly get meters of snow each winter, and they are way lower elevation than the alps too. Also as we all know the last decade has been stoopid warm.
Mt Washington has measured the highest wind speed in the world.
The crazy bit is how far north Europe is, relative to the climate we get. Almost everywhere else this far north is freezing
Imagine the chaos in Europe if the ocean currents fail to bring warm temps up from the tropics and the UK, Germany, etc all start to get weather similar to mid-northern Canada which even Canadians try their best to avoid.
The US is fucking huge. A lot of our weather up north is closer to yours, but we’ve got deserts, rainforests, Florida is just outside of the tropics, etc. There’s a huge variety of climates here. The US is larger than all of Europe, by quite a margin. East to west it’s wider than Lisbon, Spain to Moscow, Russia. North to South it’s pretty much identical to Europe. (Technically Europe is slightly larger with the Scandinavian countries sticking out pretty far north.)
It is hilarious to imagine if this were real. Like what would European explorers and Settlers have done if they started mapping it out and went “wait a minute…”
Looks like a huge improvement
I mean, you’d lose most of the Appalachian Mountains which as one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world means losing a ton of ancient fossils that helped piece together the biological history of Earth. I’d also be curious how the glaciers would be impacted given how heavily they shaped much of North America
You also lose several major cities including Toronto and St Louis, Canada loses most of its habitable land (assuming the climate isn’t significantly impacted by the existence of a second Mediterranean Sea, which it definitely would be) Chicago is going to be quite different but probably an even more important port city in such a world. Las Vegas is now a port city, so probably less casinos and more just major city. My wife would be sad because the Quad Cities (a metro area on the Iowa/Illinois border) wouldn’t exist and she really likes that area. I’d be sad because the Mississippi River would be much short and therefore way less cool. But it’s a really wild concept that gets crazier the more you think about it
Lisbon is in Portugal btw. (But that doesn’t change the distances.)
Shit, you’re right. Too much EU5 playing as Castile, and then Spain, capturing Portugal.
I like to point out that New York to LA os essentially the same distance as Moscow to Lisbon, while Seattle to Miami os about the same as London to Baghdad. That’s why St. Louis was the furthest west MLB team until the 50’s. The logistics for US sports are insane
I always pictured Berlin as like the Midwest but with less tornadoes
You’d think that knowing about Texas, New Mexico or Nevada? You probably have seen how it looks around Las Vegas at least.
great place to grow olives though. as many places with mediterrenean climates are.
New York is in line with Lisbon more or less
Gibraltar is about the same latitude as the Virgina/North Carolina state line. So southern Europe essentially ends halfway down the US Eastern seaboard