Europe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Climate=== {{Main|Climate of Europe}} [[File:Vegetation Europe.png|thumb|[[Biome]]s of Europe and surrounding regions: <br /> {{legend0|#9fd6c9|[[tundra]]}} {{legend0|#a7bddb|[[alpine tundra]]}} {{legend0|#006d64|[[taiga]]}} {{legend0|#3c9798|[[montane forest]]}} <br /> {{legend0|#a4e05d|[[temperate broadleaf forest]]}} {{legend0|#907699|[[mediterranean forest]]}} {{legend0|#f7ec6f|[[temperate steppe]]}} {{legend0|#9b8447|[[dry steppe]]}} ]] Europe lies mainly in the [[temperate]] climate zone of the northern hemisphere, where the [[prevailing westerlies|prevailing wind direction is from the west]]. The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the [[Gulf Stream]], an ocean current which carries warm water from the [[Gulf of Mexico]] across the [[Atlantic ocean]] to Europe.<ref name="climate">{{cite web|url=http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight/climates/european_climate |title=European Climate |website=World Book |access-date=16 June 2008 |publisher=World Book, Inc |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109230709/http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight%2Fclimates%2Feuropean_climate |archive-date=9 November 2006 }}</ref> The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The Gulf Stream not only carries warm water to Europe's coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the average temperature throughout the year of [[Aveiro, Portugal|Aveiro]] is {{cvt|16|C}}, while it is only {{cvt|13|C}} in [[New York City]] which is almost on the same latitude, bordering the same ocean. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in far south-eastern Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around {{cvt|8|C-change}} higher than those in Calgary and they are almost {{cvt|22|C-change}} higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk.<ref name="climate"/> The large water masses of the [[Mediterranean Sea]], which equalise the temperatures on an annual and daily average, are also of particular importance. The water of the Mediterranean extends from the [[Sahara desert]] to the Alpine arc in its northernmost part of the [[Adriatic Sea]] near [[Trieste]].<ref>Josef Wasmayer "Wetter- und Meereskunde der Adria" (1976), pp 5.</ref> In general, Europe is not just colder towards the north compared to the south, but it also gets colder from the west towards the east. The climate is more oceanic in the west and less so in the east. This can be illustrated by the following table of average temperatures at locations roughly following the 64th, 60th, 55th, 50th, 45th and 40th [[latitudes]]. None of them is located at high altitude; most of them are close to the sea. [[File:Koppen-Geiger Map Europe present.svg|thumb|650px|[[Köppen climate classification|Köppen-Geiger climate classification]] map for Europe<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=Hylke E. |last2=Zimmermann |first2=Niklaus E. |last3=McVicar |first3=Tim R. |last4=Vergopolan |first4=Noemi |last5=Berg |first5=Alexis |last6=Wood |first6=Eric F. |author6-link=Eric Franklin Wood|title=Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution |journal=Scientific Data |date=30 October 2018 |volume=5 |pages=180214 |doi=10.1038/sdata.2018.214|pmid=30375988 |pmc=6207062 |bibcode=2018NatSD...580214B }}</ref>]] {| class="wikitable" |+Temperatures in °C |- ! Location !! Latitude !! Longitude !!Coldest<br>month!!Hottest<br>month!!Annual<br>average |- | [[Reykjavík]] || 64 N || 22 W || 0.1 || 11.2 || 4.7 |- | [[Umeå]] || 64 N || 20 E || −6.2 || 16.0 || 3.9 |- | [[Oulu]] || 65 N || 25.5 E || −9.6 || 16.5 || 2.7 |- | [[Arkhangelsk]] || 64.5 N || 40.5 E || −12.7 || 16.3 || 1.3 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Lerwick]] || 60 N || 1 W || 3.5 || 12.4 || 7.4 |- | [[Stockholm]] || 59.5 N || 19 E || −1.7 || 18.4 || 7.4 |- | [[Helsinki]] || 60 N || 25 E || −4.7 || 17.8 || 5.9 |- | [[Saint Petersburg]] || 60 N || 30 E || −5.8 || 18.8 || 5.8 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Edinburgh]] || 55.5 N || 3 W || 4.2 || 15.3 || 9.3 |- | [[Copenhagen]] || 55.5 N || 12 E || 1.4 || 18.1 || 9.1 |- | [[Klaipėda]] || 55.5 N || 21 E || −1.3 || 17.9 || 8.0 |- | [[Moscow]] || 55.5 N || 30 E || −6.5 || 19.2 || 5.8 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Isles of Scilly]] || 50 N || 6 W || 7.9 || 16.9 || 11.8 |- | [[Brussels]] || 50.5 N || 4 E || 3.3 || 18.4 || 10.5 |- | [[Kraków]] || 50 N || 20 E || −2.0 || 19.2 || 8.7 |- | [[Kyiv]] || 50.5 N || 30 E || −3.5 || 20.5 || 8.4 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Bordeaux]] || 45 N || 0 || 6.6 || 21.4 || 13.8 |- | [[Venice]] || 45.5 N || 12 E || 3.3 || 23.0 || 13.0 |- | [[Belgrade]] || 45 N || 20 E || 1.4 || 23.0 || 12.5 |- | [[Astrakhan]] || 46 N || 48 E || −3.7 || 25.6 || 10.5 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Coimbra]] || 40 N || 8 W || 9.9 || 21.9 || 16.0 |- | [[Valencia]] || 39.5 N || 0 || 11.9 || 26.1 || 18.3 |- | [[Naples]] || 40.5 N || 14 E || 8.7 || 24.9 || 15.9 |- | [[Istanbul]] || 41 N || 29 E || 5.5 || 23.4 || 13.9 |- |} <ref>Climate tables of the articles, where the precise sources can be found</ref> It is notable how the average temperatures for the coldest month, as well as the annual average temperatures, drop from the west to the east. For instance, Edinburgh is warmer than Belgrade during the coldest month of the year, although Belgrade is around 10° of latitude farther south. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page