If you moved the Americas 5 degrees latitude south (climate, snow, hot)

[Warszawa]

I usually hate these sort of threads, but I got thinking, wouldn't it be sick if the Americas moved 5 degrees latitude to the south?



The Northeast Corridor, a hyper-important economic region which is haunted by crappy weather for most of December to April, would get a monstrous lift in its climates. It would occupy the 33-38 latitudes in this case, with Washington DC having a climate somewhat similar to Atlanta in the new case, while Boston would be like the new Washington DC. Imagine all the new economic activity that would happen that is currently being lost to the nasty January-March months, and the improvements in the quality of life as a result of lower heating costs and less energy spent. Boston which spends countless funds each year plowing snow from the streets, would only have to do so on a few occasions in this situation

Montreal would move to the 40th latitude, so it would have a climate similar to Central PA. It would still be mad cold, but it would be very manageable. The Great Lakes, being more isolated from the source of cold in the north, would be much warmer year round. Perhaps the southern shores of the Great Lakes could become French rivieras


Here would be the new latitudes of the major cities in South America

Rio de Janeiro: 28S
Sao Paolo: 28S
Florianopolis: 33S
Porto Alegre: 35S
Cordoba: 36S
Mendoza: 37S
Santiago: 38S
Buenos Aires: 39S
Montevideo: 40S

Tropical cities like Salvador, Lima, Cartagena, etc, are just going to be stuck in the tropics either way so they're still going to have almost the same climate. But look at the changes for other cities! Southeast Brazil, which is one of the most densely populated places in South America, would get a massive boost if this happened. The oppressively hot RdJ would have a much milder climate, that's quite a bit better, no? Rio would be much nicer and milder, as opposed to being Singapore 2.0

Porto Alegre and Florianopolis meanwhile, would turn into pure heaven

Montevideo and Buenos Aires would become a bit colder, something like this, but that's hardly a bad climate

[ghost-likin]

Originally Posted by Warszawa

Montevideo and Buenos Aires would become a bit colder, something like this, but that's hardly a bad climate

They would became a dry and cold climate, colder than the actual Viedma just because South America winters would be colders.
Cold waves would freeze the Amazon in this scenario.

[yankeefan93]

If that were the case then Monroe's winters would be a bit too warm but our summers should improve....

[Warszawa]

The part of South America connecting to the arctic is a very thin strip of land, it's not going to be like North America or Siberia where a severe Arctic high can form. The southernmost part of the Amazon is protected conveniently by the Andes mountains to the south, so any cold waves would have to first travel northwards and then westwards as well

[ghost-likin]

Originally Posted by Warszawa

The part of South America connecting to the arctic is a very thin strip of land, it's not going to be like North America or Siberia where a severe Arctic high can form. The southernmost part of the Amazon is protected conveniently by the Andes mountains to the south, so any cold waves would have to first travel northwards and then westwards as well

Antarctic you mean right?

Second, most of Amazon isnt protected by the andes, only the western part of it, the eastern and southern amazon can get temperatures below 10C on the worst cold waves just because the air from South can travel easly over the plains of central South America, if it were 5 latitude to the south thoses cold waves would became worst, with record lows close or below 0C being possible as it is in northern Paraguay today.

[lommaren]

Canadians being Canadians they'd probably build their national capital in some place like Matagami regardless

(current climate at 49N)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagami#Climate

[Mhc1985]

Originally Posted by Warszawa

Montevideo and Buenos Aires would become a bit colder, something like this, but that's hardly a bad climate

When you make extrapolations like this, you must try to respect the longitude too. In this case it would be something like Mar del Plata but a bit colder and significantly more continental -as we'd have more landmass at middle latitudes, we may expect bigger highs in the winter, yet a good summer warming due to the amount of land. Nevertheless it would translate into just a couple of more degrees in terms of annual range.

If a place like Ezeiza is currently something like 24ºC in Jan, 10ºC in Jul and 1000 mm yearly, moving it 5º south would result in kind of 21ºC in Jan, 5ºC in Jul and 850 mm yearly.

The Andes of Chile and Argentina would experience a massive increase of glaciers and ice fields. Ushuaia is likely to get buried by a restored Martial glacier.

Originally Posted by ghost-likin

Second, most of Amazon isnt protected by the andes, only the western part of it, the eastern and southern amazon can get temperatures below 10C on the worst cold waves just because the air from South can travel easly over the plains of central South America, if it were 5 latitude to the south thoses cold waves would became worst, with record lows close or below 0C being possible as it is in northern Paraguay today.

In fact the western part of the (lowland) Amazon is the most prone to get hit by a freak polar air mass thanks to the Andes, that help them channel through the north. This is why Iquitos got much colder than Manaus during the 2010 "cold snap".

[antinimby]

Rio de Janeiro currently isn't Singapore 2.0. With a 77-65 F average (25-18 C) in the coolest month, it is more similar to Havana.

[antinimby]

NYC would become similar to Norfolk, VA.

[antinimby]

Atlanta would be like Orlando.

Miami would be like Guantanamo Bay Cuba.

Houston would be like Brownsville.

Chicago would be like Cape Girardeau.