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Old 01-12-2012, 09:05 AM
 
Location: Kowaniec, Nowy Targ, Podhale. 666 m n.p.m.
355 posts, read 975,473 times
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In another thread some started philosophizing about what climates and livability of cities would be if the America's would be located 10 degrees further south.

How would it look like if the European continent would be located further north though, what effects would it have on the weather and climate, and more importantly, what effects would it have had on the history? Europe has been the continent which has shaped a good part of the modern world and the way things are as they are. Partly because of the geography of Europe, partly because of the climate.

Assume the Gulf Stream / North Atlantic drift is where it is, terminating at around 80 degrees latitude.

Svalbard: 84 to 90N (Longyearbyen: 88N)
Scandinavia: 65 to 81N
Iceland: 73 to 77N
British Isles: 59 to 70N
Central European Plain: 58 to 65N (Amsterdam/Paris to Belarus)
Alpine - Carpathian Belt: 55 to 60N (Slowakia through Vienna to SE France)
Anatolian Peninsula: 46 to 52N
Balkan Peninsula: 47 to 57N (Greece to Zagreb)
Italian Peninsula: 47 to 56N
Iberian Peninsula: 46 to 54N
Mediterranean Basin: 40 to 55N (Malta, Cyprus, Crete: 45N)
North African coast: 40 to 48N (Cairo: 40N, Tunis: 47N, Casablanca: 44N)
North African med. countries: 30 to 48N (Libya, Egypt, Maghreb)
Canary Islands: 38 to 40N
Timbuktu, Mali: 27N
Dakar, Senegal: 25N
Lake Chad: 23N
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Old 01-12-2012, 10:24 AM
 
Location: In transition
10,635 posts, read 16,644,979 times
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Wow.. 10 degrees further north, I think much of Northern Europe would be less habitable even with the gulf stream. If you also shift Asia which attaches to Europe further north as well, you'd probably get much more severe cold air outbreaks in winter in places like Paris and London. London's climate would probably be similar to Bergen, Norway I imagine and Paris would be like Stockholm. Overall, I think the population of Europe would be much lower than it is now which would have had important historical consequences.
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Old 01-12-2012, 10:55 AM
 
Location: Leeds, UK
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Are you sure? Wouldn't London and Paris have similar climates still? Bergen is way milder then Stockholm.

Longyearben would probably become uninhabitable
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Old 01-12-2012, 11:01 AM
 
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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it would be reaaally cold!
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Old 01-12-2012, 11:25 AM
 
Location: In transition
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dunno what to put here View Post
Are you sure?

Wouldn't London and Paris have similar climates still? Bergen is way milder then Stockholm.

Longyearben would probably become uninhabitable
Well London would be at 61°N so would probably have a very similar climate to coastal Norway around Bergen. The fact that it's still on an island would protect it somewhat from cold outbreaks.

Paris would on second thought be milder than Stockholm on average but would have more severe cold snaps. Another big question is how much more ocean around Northern Europe would freeze up in the winter with more northerly latitude. The Baltic Sea might only be navigable with icebreakers.
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Old 01-12-2012, 11:44 AM
 
Location: Leeds, UK
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The Baltic Sea would freeze over completely, it usually freezes up to around Stockholm and it completely froze over as recently as 1987 and nearly did last winter
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Old 01-12-2012, 01:36 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, Canada
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Scandinavia and the Alps would have a lot more ice sheets! In fact I'm guessing Norway would look much like Greenland. Iceland would be more true to its name, but I'm thinking Scotland would have some ice cap, too.

I'm thinking Istanbul would be a lot like much of Ukraine is now. I'm wondering if here in Cairo we'd be Mediterranean here or more like Istanbul given how far east we'd be of moderating influences.

I'm guessing the Mediterranean region would be an interesting mixture of oceanic, continental, and steppe, perhaps some typicaly Mediterranean and humid subtropical in the south.
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Old 01-12-2012, 04:20 PM
 
Location: Buxton, England
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I don't even want to think about it, what a horrible idea. Buxton would get summer highs of about 55°F in all probability, and be covered in ice sheets from November - March.
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Old 01-12-2012, 04:35 PM
 
Location: Leeds, UK
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I'd quite like a winter with snow from November til March, but average summer highs in the 50's doesn't appeal to me
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Old 01-14-2012, 08:14 AM
 
Location: Toronto
3,295 posts, read 7,001,194 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Proterra View Post
In another thread some started philosophizing about what climates and livability of cities would be if the America's would be located 10 degrees further south.

How would it look like if the European continent would be located further north though, what effects would it have on the weather and climate, and more importantly, what effects would it have had on the history? Europe has been the continent which has shaped a good part of the modern world and the way things are as they are. Partly because of the geography of Europe, partly because of the climate.
Would agriculture be possible at all across a big area of the continent? Maybe much of the summer might be too short to get a good growing season.

Though Europe has quite a decent amount of arable land in real life, this might change a lot, so the population density might be lower and still centered around the south, and the civilization might be even more southerly-dominated as it was early on in the real world (since it seemed that in history seemed to go north in Europe, as civilization started in the Near-Midle East to the classical Mediterranean Greece and Rome and then up to western Europe).
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