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So I was reading a thread If Gulf Stream keeps Spain, and Italy pretty mild, then why not the Northeast of USA and on post #10 tom77falcons said "replace Canada with an ocean and then the Great Lakes would be more like SW France I imagine maybe even warmer. The huge water to the north would decimate the Polar Vortex as Cambium claims open water kills it. So there goes Canada and there goes winter."
So in this thread choose a country or if you want something finer, you can choose a state, province, oblast, county etc. and replace it with open water/ocean, and predict how big of an effect it will have on the local and or global climate. Also don't make this political, so you can't just erase a country just because you don't like it, you have to given reasons.
As was stated above one of the obvious ones would be Canada (you can still discuss Canada), and I think that erasing Russia would have a similar effect as well. What about if you erased a large landlocked country such as Niger or Kazakhstan, would these new bodies of water make their respective neighboring deserts lush and green? Or what about erasing Iran, the Caspian Sea would probably be a lot warmer but it could also mean the cold fronts from russia might reach the persian gulf, but also more heat waves reaching Russia? Or what about erasing Panama, how would it change ocean currents?
If Canada didn't exist, there would be a very cool year round ocean north of the USA. Strong cold waves would be over, but the ocean would moderate the summer's temperatures. The Great Lakes area might be a bit warmer overall, but not very much, with cooler summers and much milder winters. No way it would get as warm as Southern France. The USA may look like a wetter, cooler and more continental version of Australia.
If Niger didn't exist, well, we have a problem here, as it's a landlocked country located in a bone dry area, there would still be land, a big depression with a huge salt flat in the middle that temporarily fills with water, maybe. Let's erase Benin too, so that we can fill it with water. Anyway, I don't think it would change the surrounding areas a lot. A bit more of rain near the new sea, but the general environments would stay about the same.
If Kazakhstan didn't exist... ok, it's a mess, another landlocked country, etc. Next...
If Iran didn't exist, the Caspian coast would be severely inundated, as it's at 28 metres below the sea level!! Back to the erasing of Iran, I don't see how Russia could have more heat waves after this or why a cold front should go through this new body of water up to the Persian Gulf (?). If anything, everything around would get milder, but definitely this is a good one to analyse (esp. on rainfall patterns and amounts).
If Canada didn't exist, there would be a very cool year round ocean north of the USA. Strong cold waves would be over, but the ocean would moderate the summer's temperatures. The Great Lakes area might be a bit warmer overall, but not very much, with cooler summers and much milder winters. No way it would get as warm as Southern France. The USA may look like a wetter, cooler and more continental version of Australia.
If Niger didn't exist, well, we have a problem here, as it's a landlocked country located in a bone dry area, there would still be land, a big depression with a huge salt flat in the middle that temporarily fills with water, maybe. Let's erase Benin too, so that we can fill it with water. Anyway, I don't think it would change the surrounding areas a lot. A bit more of rain near the new sea, but the general environments would stay about the same.
If Kazakhstan didn't exist... ok, it's a mess, another landlocked country, etc. Next...
If Iran didn't exist, the Caspian coast would be severely inundated, as it's at 28 metres below the sea level!! Back to the erasing of Iran, I don't see how Russia could have more heat waves after this or why a cold front should go through this new body of water up to the Persian Gulf (?). If anything, everything around would get milder, but definitely this is a good one to analyse (esp. on rainfall patterns and amounts).
No way. Our warm air in summer comes from the SW or S and cold fronts in summer come from Canada. Nice try but I'm not buying it. The US would be far far warmer in winter, spring, and fall, and summer would be the same or warmer since so much of the solar energy wouldn't go into heating up the Great Lakes or the very cold ground. The Southeast US would be almost tropical. Canada doesn't give the US heat in the summer.
If the USA didn't exist, then Canada would be a lot cooler especially in the summer, due to no hot landmass to the south. This would allow snow to last much longer into the year.
If the USA didn't exist, then Canada would be a lot cooler especially in the summer, due to no hot landmass to the south. This would allow snow to last much longer into the year.
The winters in the southern part of Canada wouldn't be that harsh, thanks to the ocean that would be on USA's stead.
If Iran didn't exist, the Caspian coast would be severely inundated, as it's at 28 metres below the sea level!! Back to the erasing of Iran, I don't see how Russia could have more heat waves after this or why a cold front should go through this new body of water up to the Persian Gulf (?). If anything, everything around would get milder, but definitely this is a good one to analyse (esp. on rainfall patterns and amounts).
The reason why I thought there might be fronts passing through the erased Iran is because there is a huge series of mountain chains extending from turkey through Iran and up around the Chinese border and into Siberia which separates the arctic air in the north from the tropical air in the south, however with this breach it could allow these air flows to mix similar to the situation in the US. Which is why a tropical place such as southern Florida can experience cold snaps from time to time. Of course this new body of water would moderate the effects so nothing might happen. However if you look at the southern coast of Iran it is all green so would the southern coast of the persian gulf receive much more precipitation especially the mountainous regions in UAE and Oman? the new coasts of Afghanistan would probably be very wet with such a sudden rise in elevation and on the eastern shore, similar to the eastern black sea coast.
No way. Our warm air in summer comes from the SW or S and cold fronts in summer come from Canada. Nice try but I'm not buying it. The US would be far far warmer in winter, spring, and fall, and summer would be the same or warmer since so much of the solar energy wouldn't go into heating up the Great Lakes or the very cold ground. The Southeast US would be almost tropical. Canada doesn't give the US heat in the summer.
What you say is intuitive: in a simplified way, the USA has a source of hot weather (Gulf of Mexico) and a source of cold weather (Canada). If we erase the source of cold weather, we just keep the source of heat, so it gets much hotter overall... but it doesn't work this way. Without Canada, the general climate patterns you know for the USA would be disrupted. Now, you'd have a cool ocean that keeps winters mild, but they ease the enter of cool weather systems in the summer.
Whereas it's true that Canada doesn't give the USA heat in the summer, it does prevent cool weather systems from permanently entering the USA, so it does keep the USA hot. After all, Canada is a huge land mass, a land mass overheats during the summer months.
Look at this place in Central Eastern Argentina: Azul
With the South Atlantic Anticyclone in the East and a large plain that connects it directly to the Amazon rainforest, it should get all the tropical heat in the summer but just mild weather in the winter (as there is virtually no land mass in the south. Whereas winters are relatively mild... summers are too, and its annual average is just 14ºC, similar to a place like Richmond, Virginia, also located at a latitude of about 37º.
But what happens in the Azul's summer, why are its summers so cool? The ocean! The area gets weekly hit by cool systems originated in the South Pacific. It can't happen currently in Richmond, but would happen if there was an ocean where Canada is.
If the Himalayas didn't exist, India would be prone to the frigid Siberian air in the winter, with New Delhi probably seeing record lows of -15C and average winter highs of 17C.
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