Weather and Latitude are not allies

Weather and Latitude are not allies

There is a popular assumption that if you move to higher latitudes (toward the poles) you can escape the heat- and that by moving to lower latitudes (toward the equator) you can escape the cold. Th Contd...

There is a popular assumption that if you move to higher latitudes (toward the poles) you can escape the heat- and that by moving to lower latitudes (toward the equator) you can escape the cold.

The equation is simple. But is it real? If it was- then the most northerly capital- Reykjavík- would also be the coldest...at least until they establish a country on Antarctica. Yes- it appears that latitude is slacking off and failing to keep temperatures in line.

This was brought home to me when preparing for a radio interview in Dublin- Ireland. February had just roiled in and I was sitting back comfortably in my good old glacial Ottawa- Canada- weather- scraping icicles off my toes. I was giddy with excitement over our warm spell- which it was reaching a high of minus-5 (that/' s about 20-degrees American). I always ask questions the day before an interview- to learn a bit about my audience- so I asked the producer- "So what/' s the weather forecast for Dublin- Ireland?" asked.

"Oh it/' s horrible- " she told me. "People are bracing for a deep winter freeze that/' s supposed to hit tonight. It might even get as cold as minus-5!"
This blew me away- that the folks in Dublin would be worried about the thermometer dips as low as ours spikes high. After all- isn/' t Dublin about the same latitude as Ottawa?

Weather forecast from an atlas

I whipped out my trusty atlas. We live almost exactly on the 45th parallel. If we lived exactly on it- we would have to share our bed with a cow and a dozen chickens across the road – that/' s how close we are.

I turned the pages to find Ireland. Could I have been mistaken? Is Dublin really quite south of us? No- it turns out that Dublin lies at the 53rd parallel. Hey! They should be getting colder weather than us. That/' s not fair.
The weather is not fair. Dublin is way to the North of us- so why do we get all the cold?

I decided to take a peak at a few other pages of my atlas. Lo and behold- Venice is also on the 45th parallel. Let me tell you that the weather forecast for Venice- Italy never calls for getting buried in snow for three or four months of the year...unless you happen to be viewing "The Day After Tomorrow". In fact- the average temperature in Venice in January is +1 (that/' s about 34-degrees American).

Hmm. I wondered what else lay along the 45th parallel. The French Riviera. Not too much ice going on there. Portland- Oregon. I checked the Portland- USA- weather forecast. Yup- same as Venice in January. And Sevastapol- Urkaine- also with January temperatures near Venice.
In fact- no other well-populated area of the world endures so much cold (except parts of Russia- but many of those people can/' t afford the taxi fare to go somewhere else).

So why do so many people with so much wealth live in such an inhospitable climate? I don/' t know. Maybe we are waiting for latitude to correct this little anomaly.

Or maybe our brains are simply frozen. Or maybe that/' s why so many people around here head south to enjoy that warm Orlando- Florida- weather forecast.

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