Earth
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Reto Stöckli

The ocean circulation that is responsible for England’s mild climate appears to be slowing down. The shift is not sudden or dramatic, as in the 2004 sci-fi movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” but it is a real effect that has consequences for the climates of eastern North America and Western Europe.

Also unlike in that movie, and in theories of long-term climate change, these recent trends are not connected with the melting of Arctic sea ice and buildup of freshwater near the North Pole. Instead, they seem to be connected to shifts at the southern end of the planet, according to a recent University of Washington study in the journal of Geophysical Research Letters.

“It doesn’t work like in the movie, of course,” said Kathryn Kelly, an oceanographer at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory. “The slowdown is actually happening very gradually, but it seems to be happening like predicted: It does seem to be spinning down.”

Read more at UW Today »