Weather and Latitude are not allies

Weather and Latitude are not allies

By David Leonhardt



There is a popular assumption that if you move to higher

latitudes (toward the poles) you can escape the heat, and that by

moving to lower latitudes (toward the equator) you can escape the

cold.



The equation is simple. But is it real? If it was, then the

most northerly capital, Reykjavík, would also be the coldest...at

least until they establish a country on Antarctica. Yes, it

appears that latitude is slacking off and failing to keep

temperatures in line.



This was brought home to me when preparing for a radio interview

in Dublin, Ireland. February had just roiled in and I was

sitting back comfortably in my good old Ottawa weather, scraping

icicles off my toes. I was giddy with excitement over our warm

spell, which it was reaching a high of minus-5 (that's about 20- degrees American). I always ask questions the day before an

interview, to learn a bit about my audience, so I asked the

producer, "So what's the weather forecast in Dublin?" asked.



"Oh it's horrible," she told me. "People are bracing for a deep

winter freeze that's supposed to hit tonight. It might even get

as cold as minus-5!"



This blew me away, that the folks in Dublin would be worried

about the thermometer dips as low as ours spikes high. After

all, isn't Dublin about the same latitude as Ottawa?



I whipped out my trusty atlas. We live almost exactly on the

45th parallel. If we lived exactly on it, we would have to share

our bed with a cow and a dozen chickens across the road - that's

how close we are.



I turned the pages to find Ireland. Could I have been mistaken?

Is Dublin really quite south of us? No, it turns out that Dublin

lies at the 53rd parallel. Hey! They should be getting colder

weather than us. That's not fair.



The weather is not fair. Dublin is way to the North of us, so

why do we get all the cold?



I decided to take a peak at a few other pages of my atlas. Lo

and behold, Venice is also on the 45th parallel. Let me tell you

that the Venice weather forecast never calls for getting buried

in snow for three or four months of the year. In fact, the

average temperature in January is +1 (that's about 34-degrees

American).



Hmm. I wondered what else lay along the 45th parallel. The

French Riviera. Not too much ice going on there. Portland,

Oregon. I checked the Portland weather forecast. Yup, same as

Venice in January. Sevastapol, Urkaine, also with January

temperatures near Venice.



In fact, no other well-populated area of the world endures so

much cold (except parts of Russia, but many of those people can't

afford the taxi fare to go somewhere else).



So why do so many people with so much wealth live in such an

inhospitable climate? I don't know. Maybe we are waiting for

latitude to correct this little anomaly.



Or maybe our brains are simply frozen. Or maybe that's why so

many people around here head south to enjoy that Orlando weather

forecast.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



David Leonhardt is a website marketing consultant: http://www.seo-writer.net He is building a travel directory at: http://www.wv-travel-directory.com

Get your weather forecast at

http://www.weather4you.info





ABOUT THE AUTHOR (in html):



David Leonhardt is an Ottawa,

Canada-based website marketing consultant. Get your
href=http://www.weather4you.info>local weather forecast or

check out his upcoming vacation travel directory.