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Gulf Stream Demystified
Fri Nov 04, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
There's nothing like children to reveal what you don't know... Parent David Laskin, who also doubles as our west coast commentator, found that out at a recent meal with his kids.
We were sitting around having lunch, my three teenage daughters and I, when the conversation veered unexpectedly from hair care products to, of all things, the Gulf Stream. "What I don't get," chimed in Sarah, "is how this little band of water can make such a big difference in weather. I mean, if it wasn't for the Gulf Stream, England would be as snowy as Canada, right? So how does it work?" With my proud paternal smile slowly dissolving into a sheepish grin, I finally had to confess, "I don't know."
But you can bet I found out fast. On our side of the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream is indeed a rather narrow channel, and a swift one: measuring about 50 miles across in the Gulf of Mexico, it whisks nearly 80 degree water at the rate of 3 mph around the tip of Florida and up toward North Carolina. But once it heads into the mid-Atlantic, the Gulf Stream kind of mellows out. Now traveling under the hip new name of the North Atlantic Drift, the Gulf Stream relaxes, divides, spreads, and meanders until eventually it has bulked up to several hundred miles across and slowed to less than 1 mph. Warm, wide, lazy, and shallow, the Gulf Stream arrives in Britain like a sweaty American tourist bearing a hefty load of tropical heat and humidity.
If you want to know what's up with Seattle author and commentator, David Laskin, check out his other commentaries and books on our website, at weathernotebook.org. The program is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and supported by the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
Current velocities of the Gulf Stream
http://rads.tudelft.nl/gulfstream/
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