Global warming ‘will bring cooler climate for UK’

Average temperatures in Britain are expected to fall significantly within a decade because the warm Atlantic current that maintains Europe’s mild climate has slowed down by 30 per cent.

The discovery has alarmed scientists because ancient climate records show that northern air temperatures can drop by up to 10C within decades of the circulation slowing, or even stopping, because of the vast amounts of heat energy transported by ocean currents.
An average temperature drop of a degree or two within decades would herald more extreme winters, notably in Scotland, said Dr Meric Srokosz, scientific co-ordinator of the Natural Environment Research Council’s Rapid Climate Change Thematic Programme.

The changes already occurring have been found as a result of efforts to follow up computer predictions of global warming. They have confirmed a predicted slowing of ocean circulation, a team from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, reports today in the journal Nature.

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