Cold snap? or something more sinister?

[Sehwut Profile]

As a lot of you may know the U.K. is in the grip of a cold snap,and I believe a lot of the united states are too.
My topic of debate is this....is this just a normal weather pattern or is this down to the gulf stream allegedly shutting down?
Only time will answer this question but what do YOU think?

[Badger Profile]

Personally I think we're in the middle of an inter-glacial period, so "global-warming" wont really have an effect.

I read about the interglacial theory in a book so I don't have any links avaliable for it....
I'll see if I can dig some out.....

[Harbin Profile]

Go here for gulf stream watching:

http://rads.tudelft.nl/gulfstream/

[Aardvaaks Profile]

Back a week or so ago we did experienced 2-3 previous weeks of warm weather for Autumn as they used to describe as an Indian summer in the UK.

[Sehwut Profile]

Really who knows anything?
We only know what we are told,the information given to us could be more contaminated than any sea water around the gulf.
That oil spill undoubtedly had an effect on the gulf stream in my opinion,but I don't believe the gulf stream is 100% responsible for controlling the climate,in my opinion it is chain-linked to other processes,what worries me is that if I'm right and it's chain-linked then .....well...lets just say domino effect,gulf current gets messed up which messes up the jet stream which messes up the overall northern hemisphere temps.....hence a whole lot of trouble for us lot.

[Sehwut Profile]

Back a week or so ago we did experienced 2-3 previous weeks of warm weather for Autumn as they used to describe as an Indian summer in the UK.

Thats true aards,but in my (admittedly short) lifetime I have never actually seen a minus zero temp in the first couple of weeks of october....just seems a bit strange to me thats all something seems a bit off with the climate in general.

[Badger Profile]

here's a interesting link about the gulf stream....
http://atlasbear.com/2009/05/02/the-gulf-stream-and-global-warming/

[Badger Profile]

here is an interesting artcle about ice-ages
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Interglacial+period

Any period of extensive glaciation (in which icesheets and icecaps expand over the Earth) occurring in the Earth's history, but particularly that in the Pleistocene epoch (last 2 million years), immediately preceding historic times. On the North American continent, glaciers reached as far south as the Great Lakes, and an icesheet spread over northern Europe, leaving its remains as far south as Switzerland. In Britain ice reached as far south as a line from Bristol to Banbury to Exeter. There were several glacial advances separated by interglacial (warm) stages, during which the ice melted and temperatures were higher than today. We are currently in an interglacial phase of an ice age.

Other ice ages have occurred throughout geological time: there were four in the Precambrian era, one in the Ordovician, and one at the end of the Carboniferous and beginning of the Permian. The occurrence of an ice age is governed by a combination of factors (the Milankovitch hypothesis): (1) the Earth's change of attitude in relation to the Sun – that is, the way it tilts in a 41,000-year cycle and at the same time wobbles on its axis in a 22,000-year cycle, making the time of its closest approach to the Sun come at different seasons; and (2) the 92,000-year cycle of eccentricity in its orbit around the Sun, changing it from an elliptical to a near circular orbit, the severest period of an ice age coinciding with the approach to circularity. There is a possibility that the Pleistocene ice age is not yet over. It may reach another maximum in another 60,000 years.

The theory of ice ages was first proposed in the 19th century by, among others, Swiss civil engineer Ignace Venetz 1821 and Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz 1837. (Before, most geologists had believed that the rocks and sediment they left behind were caused by the biblical flood.) The term ‘ice age’ was first used by botanist Karl Schimper in 1837.

[Freeyourmindnow Profile]

i told you so