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So I was thinking about this hypothetical climate scenario today... what if Africa was shifted 20 degrees south and Europe was left as it is now, so basically making the Mediterranean into a much larger extension of the Atlantic Ocean. The corresponding latitudes for African cities would be as follows:
Ha, your doing every continent now. But I love these scenerios.
Cape town: Ocean climate winter temperatures around 2C/-2C very wet and windy with regular coldwaves from Antartica bringing snow and temperatures 5 or 5C below freezing. Summers would be warm ish (17C) with possibely regular but weak heatwaves from Tropical Africa pumping up temperatures to 25/26C though it would be tempered ALOT by the very cool ocean and nearby Antartica. Summers would also be windy. Cape town may be like RÃo Grande, Tierra del Fuego - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia but with stronger heatwaves.
Johannesburg: Would have a oceanic continental climate, winters would be mild (9C/0C) but may be cooler due to its elevation with periodes of unsettled weather from the rain bearing westerlies. Summers would be much warmer than Cape town with summers around 22C but with periodes of rain/cloud. Heatwaves would still e weak due to its high elevation but much stronger than Cape town
Lusaka: Would have a sutropical-continental type climate due to its inland location. Winters will be mild (13C/1C) summers hot/warm and humid.
Well Europe's med region would be much cooler especially places near the border of the med sea.
Areas surronding cape town would be lush green in summer but snow caped in winter... and the south african savanah would be forests!...
North Africa probably wouldn't be desert, or the desert would be a lot smaller.
Instead of a narrow strip in the middle as equitorial rainforest, most of the Sahara would be equitorial rainforest.
(unless I am missing something, given the vast distance west-to-east across Africa's widest part )
Could this make famine in Africa much less common?
I am already envious of the South African savannah climate and landscape,
(Australia is probably more comfortable, but South Africa probably more beautiful)
so moving South Africa would not be an improvement for me
Perhaps it would just move north into arid areas like Nambia and humid-subtropical Mozambique.
Are there any detailed paleo-climate observations for the continents? I just know that at one point in Earth's history, Africa WAS 10° further south than it is today
So I was thinking about this hypothetical climate scenario today... what if Africa was shifted 20 degrees south and Europe was left as it is now, so basically making the Mediterranean into a much larger extension of the Atlantic Ocean. The corresponding latitudes for African cities would be as follows:
Cape town would be much much wetter and windier than visby, also cooler in summer due to the effect of very southern ocean.
Quote:
Originally Posted by deneb78
^^ I agree. I think Cape Town would be like Reykjavik but have higher record highs in the summer.
So, probably a warmer version of Kerguelen (about the same latitude as your proposed scenario), since unlike these islands it's still attached to the African continent and more prone to warm (or even hot) spells.
Last edited by Superluminal; 12-22-2012 at 01:38 PM..
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