The North Atlantic Drift was killed this year

Pi^2

The North Atlantic Drift is but one component of the global Thermohaline Cycle. Obviously the NAD is very important to us here in Western Europe, Greenland and Eastern Canada. Scientists have been pointing out that it is dying for quite a while.

It has always been said that the NAD keeps us approx 4 to 7 degrees warmer than we deserve to be at our latitude. That kind of equates to the drastic weather are currently experiencing.

I believe that one particular man-made event this year has caused a huge acceleration toward the demise of the North Atlantic Drift. That is the Gulf Oil Spill.

Think about it, the primary source of heat for the NAD comes from the Gulf stream in the Gulf of Mexico. For a large fraction of this past year (approx 4 to 6 months, including the entire summer) this heat source was covered by a vast layer of oil. Oil reflects sunlight (and thus heat) more so than water does, thus limiting thermal radiation. And it acts as an insulator and an extra bounday layer preventing thermal conduction between the warm air above and the colder water below. This prevented the surface water from heating up as much as it "normally" would have.

The amount of heat that was not absorbed by the water in the Gulf this year is nontrivial. And anyone with a comprehension or appreciation of chaos theory will not only consider it as nontrivial but as extremely significant.

I'll work on producing some figures to highlight my postulation, if anyone wants to help, please do as there is a lot of data to wade through. Thanks in advance.



Discuss

Bucklesman

Interesting theory. Let's see those figures.

n900guy

Pi^2 wrote: »

The North Atlantic Drift is but one component of the global Thermohaline Cycle. Obviously the NAD is very important to us here in Western Europe, Greenland and Eastern Canada. Scientists have been pointing out that it is dying for quite a while.

It has always been said that the NAD keeps us approx 4 to 7 degrees warmer than we deserve to be at our latitude. That kind of equates to the drastic weather are currently experiencing.

I believe that one particular man-made event this year has caused a huge acceleration toward the demise of the North Atlantic Drift. That is the Gulf Oil Spill.

Think about it, the primary source of heat for the NAD comes from the Gulf stream in the Gulf of Mexico. For a large fraction of this past year (approx 4 to 6 months, including the entire summer) this heat source was covered by a vast layer of oil. Oil reflects sunlight (and thus heat) more so than water does, thus limiting thermal radiation. And it acts as an insulator and an extra bounday layer preventing thermal conduction between the warm air above and the colder water below. This prevented the surface water from heating up as much as it "normally" would have.

The amount of heat that was not absorbed by the water in the Gulf this year is nontrivial. And anyone with a comprehension or appreciation of chaos theory will not only consider it as nontrivial but as extremely significant.

I'll work on producing some figures to highlight my postulation, if anyone wants to help, please do as there is a lot of data to wade through. Thanks in advance.



Discuss

I agree but my "conspiracy" theory is that as the oil settles on the earth's surface in the gulf of mexico, it is an extra layer of insulation that prevents hotter temperatures from the earths core heat the water even a few small .00001's of a centigrade. I don't know if the water deep down gets any actual noticable temperature variation depending on thickness of the mantle and if it's been insulated, but that's my theory.

Defo, either way, I think the spill has definitely contibuted something to the current climate. I know this is a serious forum however; the impact of the gulf spill on weather I think is only beginning as we need a few cycles to see if things are going really wrong.

MilanPan!c

Please move to 'Conspiracy Theories'. This ain't science, it's fearmongering and BS.

People have been literally saying this crap since the GOM spill and it's never been true.

MilanPan!c

Link to the CT forum:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=576

rainbowdash

Go back ~200 years and they used to hold the "Thames Fair" on the ice locked river in central London. Cold weather is nothing new.

There was no oil spill last year and we got extreme cold.

Apparently '47 was harsh but I wasn't around, was there an oil spill then?

And the pentagon was not hit by a plane according to Jim Corr.

And the Russians killed JFK.

pegasus1

MilanPan!c wrote: »

Please move to 'Conspiracy Theories'. This ain't science, it's fearmongering and BS.

People have been literally saying this crap since the GOM spill and it's never been true.

how is it a conspiracy
the NAD has switched off in the past and will again in the future or present:eek:

and there is not a thing you can do about it:rolleyes:

BEASTERLY

This has been posted here and in other forums before, and its been concluded that its utter crap, its as strong as it always was.

pegasus1

rainbowdash wrote: »

e col

Apparently '47 was harsh but I wasn't around, was there an oil spill then?

many an oil spill happened 1939-1945.:P

MilanPan!c

pegasus1 wrote: »

how is it a conspiracy
the NAD has switched off in the past and will again in the future or present:eek:

and there is not a thing you can do about it:rolleyes:

You really don't get how the idea that te oil in the GOM has changed the world's weather is a CT? (And all of the world's scientists aren't mentioning it, but this one guy has it all figured out and is totally gonna share his unevidenced and hidden truth with us... Aren't we lucky).

Nothing I can do to help you figure that out.

MilanPan!c

Here's absolute proof this is a conspiracy theory:

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/search.php?q=gulf+stream

pegasus1

MilanPan!c wrote: »

You really don't get how the idea that te oil in the GOM has changed the world's weather is a CT? (And all of the world's scientists aren't mentioning it, but this one guy has it all figured out and is totally gonna share his unevidenced and hidden truth with us... Aren't we lucky).

Nothing I can do to help you figure that out.

i was talking about the NAD switching off not the GOM spill

if you are on about the big c word then why did you post it here!!

MilanPan!c

pegasus1 wrote: »

i was talking about the NAD switching off not the GOM spill

if you are on about the big c word then why did you post it here!!

Why did I post what?

The idea that the OP stated, which is that the Gulf Stream was killed by the GOM oil spill is a CT. Nothing more.

From the OP:

I believe that one particular man-made event this year has caused a huge acceleration toward the demise of the North Atlantic Drift. That is the Gulf Oil Spill.

mike65

Pi^2 wrote: »

Think about it, the primary source of heat for the NAD comes from the Gulf stream in the Gulf of Mexico. For a large fraction of this past year (approx 4 to 6 months, including the entire summer) this heat source was covered by a vast layer of oil. Oil reflects sunlight (and thus heat) more so than water does, thus limiting thermal radiation. And it acts as an insulator and an extra bounday layer preventing thermal conduction between the warm air above and the colder water below. This prevented the surface water from heating up as much as it "normally" would have.

n900guy wrote: »

I agree but my "conspiracy" theory is that as the oil settles on the earth's surface in the gulf of mexico, it is an extra layer of insulation that prevents hotter temperatures from the earths core heat the water even a few small .00001's of a centigrade. I don't know if the water deep down gets any actual noticable temperature variation depending on thickness of the mantle and if it's been insulated, but that's my theory.

Hmm, not sure which theory is the madder. Maybe they are both right, or maybe neither is right. I'll go with the latter.

This is an hardy example of the negative phase of the NAO in action. NOTHING MORE! unless you want to throw sun spots (or the lack of) into the mix.

pegasus1

my mistake thought you were the op for a mo..!!:o

thetonynator

rainbowdash wrote: »

Go back ~200 years and they used to hold the "Thames Fair" on the ice locked river in central London. Cold weather is nothing new.

There was no oil spill last year and we got extreme cold.

Apparently '47 was harsh but I wasn't around, was there an oil spill then?

And the pentagon was not hit by a plane according to Jim Corr.

And the Russians killed JFK.

You forgot that i'm actually elvis and that the horse in the rubberbandits video is shergar . . .:cool:

cherryghost

Feck it, I killed the Gulf Stream.

Krusader

I don't think the bad weather has anything to do with the Gulf stream oil spill, in my opinion the severe weather was caused by a natural event, namely the volcanic eruption in Iceland in the early summer.
In 1783 the volcanoe Laki erupted in Iceland and it caused a severe winter, causing famine and death of livestock. Although maybe not on the same scale as the Laki eruption, this year's eruption could have brought on the change in weather this year

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Iceland/Laki-Volcano-Eruption-Iceland/529

thetonynator

It is much more likely to be a combination of arrivals that any single factor.

mike65

mike65 wrote: »

! unless you want to throw sun spots (or the lack of) into the mix.

well....research shows a link between solar activity and the NAO
more in this thread:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055544236&page=20

a forced shift toward the low index state of the Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation as solar irradiance decreases

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/294/5549/2149.abstract

Supercell

Personally I go with sunspots before most other wild theories.
The Uk and Ireland cold spells do seem to correlate quite strongly to sunspot cycles.
Just looks at last winter and this one, if the theory holds next winter will be cold too.It is an interesting postulation though OP.