The North and Baltic Seas prevent the Siberian cold from rolling over Europe.
We talk about global warming every day. Northern Europe is particularly affected. The winters are no longer what they used to be, longer and colder. This has little to do with the glass house effect, but the North and Baltic Seas (NS-BS) make a considerable contribution to this, which is reinforced by activities at sea. Shipping, fishing, wind fields and other measures greatly increase the heat volume of the sea over the summer season, which is released again from autumn through the same activities. It works like the baby in bath water. Vigorous stirring cools the water. The weather since autumn 2020 shows how this is happening and now, at the beginning of February 2021, prevented the Siberian cold, the so-called Beast from the East, from settling in Western Europe.
The story of how the Siberian cold was kept from Europe is quickly told. At the end of August 2020, the Baltic was heated up enormously. Many other sea areas, too, from the North Cape to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the SST was always well above the long-term average. A lot of heat was released into the air and ensured the Europeans a very mild winter until the end of January 2021. Then there was an advance of cold air from east to west. This is not unusual in winter, but the attempt is without sharpness.
On one hand, it is limited to northern Europe, while southeast Europe is much too warm. It is inevitable that there will be strong winds and snow drifts at the air mass borders. More interesting is to observe how moderate the cold is from the east.
This is because the sea water temperatures are still high and therefore bring a lot of heat into the atmosphere. This prevents the establishment and strengthening of high air pressure and further inflow of cold air from the east. It remains to be seen whether there will be another cold attack. Then, however, the thermal resources of the marginal seas, especially the NS-BS, will no longer be in plus.
It remains to be seen whether there will be another cold push. Then, however, the thermal resources of the marginal seas, especially the NS-BS, will no longer be in the plus. One thing is pretty certain anyway. The continuously very high sea activities will soon make the SST of NS + BS negative. Then they will not be able to do much to counter a late cold advance from the east.
