> I'm just curious...why does eveyone think that England is freezing cold? As the reader poll sems to show, you guys in the states are getting muchos more snow than us...actually, it very rarely snows in Britain apart from in the mountains in Scotland and Wales and probably Ireland. I left the house yesterday in flip flops for crying out loud! My flatmate at Uni (who comes from Pennsylvania) is very confused about this as she was told before she came here that England was an icy freezing place. Cold, yes. Wet, yes. Unpredictable, definately. But freezing cold?
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> Liz"Arrgghh I'm talking about the weather!!Someone shoot me!"zie
> xx

Let me see if I can clear this up. The UK is mostly north of the 50th parallel, and if you base your weather predictions of latitude, it should be cold there. Not so. In the North Atlantic there is a clockwise circulation of water. The Gulf Stream is a part of this circulation, and it flows from near Florida at about three knots, directly up the coast of the US and across the ocean to England. Because it's warm water is lighter, cold currents that meet it sink underneath. When it gets to England, it is still relatively warm and winds carry that warmth ashore. Therefore, the Brits enjoy a relatively mild climate. Naturally, air over warm water also carries moisture, so they get lots of rain and fog. That's better than snow. It is, isn't it?
Howard