Re: The Channel 4 programme Britain's Big Freeze

On Jan 26, 8:36 pm, Graham Easterling <geasterl...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On 26 Jan, 20:14, Len Wood <wavetr...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On Jan 25, 4:31 pm, Nicholas <jonathan.rand...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have just seen it advertised by Channel 4 that they are showing a
programme called Britain's Big Freeze tonight at 8pm. Channel 4 did
exactly the same thing last year despite last winter been only
slightly below average temperatures.
I think they are exaggering this winter a bit, even though it has been
cold, where I live has escaped most of the snow although many other
parts of the country haven't.
It should be worth watching and recording. However. if it is a similar
programme to last year it may not be worth recording as I think
Channel 4 exaggerated last year's winter.

Nicholas

Quite a good programme with some nice pics from previous severe
winters.

Alex Hill was raising the excuse for dodgy seasonal forecasts on
probabilities. Nice cop out. Of little interest to the public of
course. Perhaps they should only issue a forecast in that case, if the
probabilty is going to be greater than 80% for warm/cold , or wet/dry.

I have another gripe:
Sarah Davies (Met Office) churned out the old chestnut:
'Britian is kept warm most winters because we have the Gulf
Stream....so for our latitude we are quite mild compared with the rest
of the world'.
Mostly untrue.

Britain is kept warm because we are downwind of the relatively warm N.
Atlantic. Labrador at the same lat. on other side of the ocean is
downwind of the cold N. American continent.
It is the prevailing westerly winds that keep us warm. The Gulf Stream
plays only a small part in comparison.

Len Wood
Wembury, SW Devon

mmm. . .
Isn't most of the N. Atlantic warm because of the Gulf Stream / N.
Atlantic Drift?

Of course the N. Atlantic Drift & prevailing westerly winds are so
interlinked it is really the combination which keeps us mild. (Not
today though)

Didn't see the programme, so can't comment further!

Graham
Penzance - soon be Summer!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The Gulf stream does play a small role, but it is the thermal inertia
of the upwind ocean in winter that is the major factor.
A paper was published in the QJ of the Roy Met Soc a few years ago
where some bods had done some sums:

Three processes (Seager et al. 2002)
contribute to the east-west symmetry
of temperature (15-20 deg.C in winter):

Half of the heat transport (accounting for about 9 deg.C)
is by the atmosphere due to orographic forcing by the Rockies.
This influences the position of the Icelandic Low
and hence our mild westerlies.
2) Seasonal and local release of heat previously stored
by the ocean accounts for about 8 deg.C.
3) Northward heat transport by the ocean (ie Gulf stream)
accounts for only about 3 deg.C.

Len
Wembury, SW Devon
.

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