The long hot summer, along with recent droughts, makes
some scientists think global warming may be here with a
vengeance. But the real sign of climate change will be when
Europe gets colder, because the ocean current that warms it
stops flowing up from the south. Now scientists are reporting
that the Atlantic ocean has become unseasonably cold?is
this a signal that sudden climate change has begun?
Warren Washington, of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research, who helped create the Bush climate research plan
says, "?One of the aspects we will be looking at carefully is
what's happening in the North Atlantic as the sea ice and
glaciers melt and add fresh water to ocean circulation, and
may change the transport of warm water in the Gulf Stream."
John F. Kelly writes in the Washington Post that the Atlantic's
sudden temperature dive is mystifying scientists. In Maryland,
the water is so cold that swimmers are staying on land.
Surfer David Quillin says, "I've never experienced it in my
whole life, where the water right along shore could be that
radically cold."
"During [most of] July, our water temperatures were, I would
say, right around normal [in the low 70s]," says Capt. Butch
Arbin, of the Ocean City Beach Patrol. About two weeks ago,
he says, "There was a tremendous change in temperature,
[dropping] as much as 10 degrees overnight."
Vacationers all along the East Coast, all the way down to
Florida, have noticed a precipitous drop in the ocean
temperature. Many of them have contacted the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about it.
Oceanographer William Tseng thinks it could be caused by
increased river runoff from this spring's rain, a current of cold
seawater coming down from the North Atlantic, or what's
called "coastal upwelling," which occurs when winds push the
warm surface layer of the water out to sea.
So far, no one's mentioned the possibility that the Gulf
Stream has dropped down, as Whitley Strieber and Art Bell
predicted in
The Coming Global Superstorm. If this has happened, the
summer heat wave in Europe will be followed by an autumn of
devastatingly cold weather. Right now, there's nothing to do
but wait and see.
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