Could Cold N. America Winter Be Reason Europe Has Been So Mild? UK Snow?

Written by Mark Vogan on February 10, 2014 in Rest of Europe, United Kingdom & Ireland with 0 Comments

Some interest stats, charts have been released on twitter by meteorologist Simon Cardy (follow him @weather_king) on how mild the Europe winter has been.

Yes, there’s no getting around the fact this winter has been mild when you look at this chart.

Chart courtesy of Simon Cardy (@weather_king)

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A large part of the reason for this mild winter has been the incredible persistency in an abnormally strong trans-Atlantic. Why so strong? The near winter-long vast temperature contrast over North America and possibly the big contrast in warmer verses colder water temperatures spanning the North Atlantic.

anomnight_2_10_2014

This old CFS temp chart pretty much sums up this winter only colder for US, warmer for Western Europe.

cfsnh-8-1-2014

The below chart represents the incredibly low mean sea level pressure we’ve endured during the months of Dec-Jan combined. Drive a persistent WESTERLY flow with one deep low after the next and you keep the cold out by pushing mild ocean air in. Simon states that the mean sea level pressure was lowest in 60 years over Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland with as many as 17 sub-960mb lows impacting from Dec 1 to date.