Cold Central

Thanks for the explanation and links, this has made things clearer A 6C drop in the surface temperature of the seas around the British Isles, thats a bigger drop than i thought. Thanks again CC

I have been following the discussion on this forum since last November but this is my first post. There has been a discussion regarding the possible shut down/disruption of the North Atlantic conveyor and the impact this would have on our climate. I understand that this would cause us to have colder winters more in line with our northern latitude. I would like to know exactly how this would effect our climate. If the prevailing wind direction in the northen hemisphere is from West to East then if the North Atlantic is a few degrees colder then would we not just experience colder Westerlies? still not cold enough to bring snow. We are told that our climate would resemble that of New Found Land, however the East Coast of North America has a large land mass (the North American Continent) to its West there for the prevailing wind there would have to travel over a cold land mass rather than an a warmer (in Winter) Ocean. Have I over simplified this or are there other factors (i.e a displacement of the jet stream to the South due to colder SST in the North Atlantic) that would cause a dramatic cooling in our neck of the woods? I don't doubt that a shut down of the NAD would cause a significant cooling of the climate of Western Europe, but would appreciate a more detailed explanation of how this would occur. Thanks CC