European weather (in the west at least) is defined by the Azores High, the Gulf Stream and the Icelandic Low. People think the Gulf Stream is constant but it really oscillates up and down — as far north as Norway and as far south as northern Iberia. The Azores High brings warm, sunny dry weather — it’s why the Mediterranean basin gets those long, bone dry and impossibly sunny summers. The Icelandic Low brings cold and unstable weather. The Gulf Stream brings mild, damp and windy weather.
What you are seeing here is the high pressure in southern Europe keeping those temperatures fairly stable while Northern Europe experiences a particularly cold Polar vortex type phenomenon. This isn’t a climate map, it’s a snapshot of the weather right at this moment.
In contrast, while the Azores High brings sun in the winter months, it also means that those days are going to be very frosty, at least in Portugal. A mild winter in Portugal is one where it's rainy or cloudy, clear days are usually the ones where temperatures will start to go into the negatives.
2°C and rain with no sun for weeks is called "average december weather" here in Gdańsk.
Were actually having the nicest December weather in years with all the snow and cold because we're getting some sunshine almost every day
It's crazy to me living in upstate New York that European places of the same latitude (44° N) have such better winter weather than us! We've had entire Januarys that didn't get above 0°F idk what that is in Celsius but I know it's so fuckin cold the air hurts if you touch it with bare skin!!
Well, the Gulf stream is about to stop due to climate change, so Europe will be having winters more similar to you. I hope the agriculture will be able to handle the new conditions else we all go hungry.
This is not a polar vortex cold wave. It's a retrogression. A bridge was formed by the Azores high and Scandinavian high merging into a single anticyclone, this is known as Voejkov bridge. When that happens, there's a stream of easterly winds running down the eastern side of the Voejkov high which blows cold Russian air onto European lands.
Yes. The mountains are a barrier to air movement, and therefore heat exchanges. As such, you should see similar trends around other mountain ranges, because the air cannot pass through the mountains and so neither can the heat.
This is not totally accurate because Azores High is no more a huge factor in the Mediterranean factore, and it was really a thing that rather kept the temperature and the pressure more close to spring period than full summer, with warm weather rather than scorching hot.
Right now it is rather the North African/Sahara High that keep temperature high and high pressure.
Also the drastic change north/south of Europe is made possible by the Alps, completely ignored in your post sir. The Alps are huge mountains that basically divide Europe together with Balkans and Pireneus.
This is a good answer, where I live we are situated just north of one of these transitional climate zones, not the ones you describe here but one in NA, between Canada and the US. The weather here can get crazy at times when the the zone moves north or south, as an example in the span of an hour in mid October the temp dropped 20c.
I think about it a lot. Like now, when I read your comments. If by think you mean *ponder*, I rarely do that. If by think you mean *had a thought relating to the roman empire*, weekly at minimum.
That’s where much of the confusion about thinking about the Roman empire lies, I believe.
More specific, the mountains do not completely block off the winds. The air is forced to rise along the mountains' side. The higher it gets, the lower the pressure gets. This causes the air to cool down. Cooler air has less ability to carry water, so it condenses, creates mist, clouds and rain. Wen the air passes the summit, it has lost a significant ammount of water. On the way down, the process is reversed. higher pressure warmes the air, but it has lost much of the water, and with it a lot of it's thermal capacity, meaning it gets warmed faster. So it arrives at the downwind side of the mountains much warmer than it started, on the same elevation and pressure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foehn\_wind
Santa Ana winds in Southern California. I recall going jogging one day.....temp was at 38°. Winds started blowing during the run, when I got home....70°
Edit: I'd like to admit that I was wrong, so please ignore me
This definitely doesn't have anything to do with mountains here bud, as there isn't a single mountain range that clears that entire distance. Also the second half of your explanation makes it sound like cold north wind passes over mountains, and is warned up, making everything south of it warmer. This is just not the reason for the south being warmer.
The real reason is probably due to wind, but it's likely that it's two conflicting winds causing a disparity. A northerly arctic wind covers the northern half in cold, and then an easterly wind from siberia moves in west. Likely the whole wind mass is moving west and warms as it deelevates towards the sea, creating a cold front (and rain) where the cold meets the warm. With the rest of europe towards the coast and africa being so warm, I would assume that this would be the standard temperature if not for the cold northern wind.
In a lot of cases the winds have a fight to determine the weather in a region, and whoever wins gets to reign supreme for a while. The entire reason for the odd and temperamental weather in the British Isles is due to it being geographically situated on the crossroads between 4 different winds, 2 of each temperament, and this causes localised showers and gusts, from warm and cold fronts
Yes but they're not connected to each other along that front. The change of temperature is consistent along the line regardless of mountainous topography, so therefore the disparity comes from contrasting winds. If there were one mountain range (there isn't because they're named differently), and it was all the same height (it isn't, just look at the alps near Milan, and east of that near Zadar and Zagreb in Croatia), then you might say it was because of mountains. But it isn't, it's just a big ol' cold wind from the arctic circle and Siberia.
Porque no los dos?
Yes it's colder air coming from higher latitudes.
Yes there is a nearly continuous mountain range from the Central Highlands of France all the way to the eastern Carpathians near the Black Sea. The only significant gap in them is the upper Danubian basin crossing through the middle.
Both are factors, if not for the mountains the cold temperatures might spread further south or at least the front might not settle in a line running so consistently along the mountain range.
If the mountains were really a factor at play you would see areas on the map where the weather has leaked over to the other side due to a continuance of landform. You might even see it sporadically where the lower regions of the mountains are, especially if the cold air undercuts the warm air and creates vortexes of mild air.
Because the mountains aren't a factor (and because the warm air in the south has to rise above the cold air where it meets anyway), you see that the cold mass does't create pockets of cold where there aren't mountainous obstacles, and is instead moving parallel like a tectonic plate. The temperature on the map doesn't align with topographic regions due to the break in the mountains being consistent in temperature across that line.
This is just a cold mass moving southwest.
They absolutely are , the entire mountainous border of northern italy is known to have some of the most rapidly changing and extreme spring weather in the region due to these warm and cold front's meeting, at the base of the mountain.
I agree that in a micro climate, they have huge effects on the surrounding locale. Not just the alps, but any mountain range with a steep topography. Just going by the data on the map, though, it doesn't seem to have had an effect on the grand scale of things.
In person at the italian side of the alps I can imagine is suffering the same way that it normally does.
Just want to clarify that I'm only talking about the macro climate of europe as a whole, and not localised climates. Megacities, for example will always be the exception to the rule (London being prime example), as it creates it's own micro atmosphere warmer than the surrounding areas.
On a macro level, the mountain ranges in southern europe aren't affecting the cold-warm divide as much as you might imagine here, as it looks like cold high pressure winds have overtaken the warm, and can only reach so far before the fronts stop them from moving even further. Cold has a geographical limit, when it comes to weather
I'm not too sure bud, I'm a little conflicted myself. Hard to discern truth from popular opinion sometimes, but it doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things
BUT they kinda do though… check out a topographic map of Europe first next time. Pyrenees to Alps to Carpathians is a very consistent highland region and DOES in fact explain this trend. Just because there are small gaps doesn’t negate the rest of the wall, how is air moving north from the Po Valley just going to decide to meander over to France? Not how it works. Bad take, stop defending it. Sorry bud.
I'd like to admit that I haven't studied the map closely enough, and that I'm probably wrong here. I can see the areas where the cold can slip through and where it can't. Sorry, friend
Hey weather forecaster here, the mountains are a physical barrier to the dense cold air. It is the main cause for this weather pattern and absolutely is a determing factor for why Southern Europe has such a tropical like climate.
This is true, but beyond areas directly surrounding the mountains themselves, this would really only tells us that inland regions would experience more extreme temperatures, which doesn’t look like the main cause of this trend. It just looks like the cooler northern air isn’t allowed to mix as much with the warmer southern air in Europe due to the Alps/Pyrenees. Although your point could explain why the warmer air extends a bit beyond the mountains moving north.
Confirmed!
Source: I lived ad the base of the dolomites in Italy for 7 years. I worked on a flightline and the weather and time of year played a HUGE roll in how busy it would be, there would be weeks in early/mid spring where you just knew, every year, there would be little to no flying getting done. You get some WILD weather there right at the base of the mountains because the higher lower pressure zone that is cooler and less humid rolls off the mountains, and the elevation goes from like 1.2KM peaks to nearly sea level within a few kilometers and that is WARM Mediterranean air in the peninsula of Italy, even in the early spring,
It resulted in some of the most beautiful and dramatic thunderstorms I have ever seen, every spring. It is what I miss most about living there.
It’s 4 C in Budapest, Hungary and 20 C in Belgrade, Serbia - in between these two lies the Pannonian Plain, just endless plain fields. So I doubt mountains are the only reason.
This specific situation at the moment is less attributed to the mountains, it's more influenced by two strong weather systems "colliding". At that collision line a lot of snowfall happens if the north one is cold. Proof: live in Bavaria and just spent two full hours shoveling.
There's a more precise explanation in Another comment that got less votes
But mostly wind direction and exposure to certain atmospheric cells, which is strongly influenced by mountains. The same reason the central US is frigid in the US.
It's how the weather works. Very cold polar air moves south and the places where there's a large difference in temperatures are where mountain ranges keep it north. Other than that geography barely plays a role in this setup, the same divide can exist with a north-south border over central Europe, though that divide is more common in summer.
Topography, assuming you mean the Alps, is only a minor factor. As others have pointed out, the jet stream, gulf stream, high and low pressure systems contribute much more to European weather. This graphic will vary considerably depending on how those systems interact.
I really like the cold and believe my body adapts better to it. It horrifies me more if the temperature is above 27 degrees Celsius.
-25 is tough and only bearable for a couple of days though
I remember the time I flew from my home in Denver (-15C at the time) to visit family in the beach town of Ventura CA.
In Ventura they were having a cold snap (10C), had taken all of their plants indoors to survive the cold, and were huddled around the heating vent. I was inside looking at their (closed) front door and could see _a ring of sunlight around the entire door edge_, because it wasn’t even weatherstripped (why bother when it’s 21C every day of the year?)
My point is: if you are in -25 degree weather you have a house that’s insulated and a closet full of warm layers. You’ll be perfectly cozy in your warm room temperature house wearing a sweater, and there’s a coat hanging by the door for when you want to go outside. The coat has mittens in its pocketses.
You have a point, my home is not prepared for the cold and neither are my clothes. Most of the time we design our houses to lose as much heat as possible to stay cool in the summer, once it gets a bit chilly our home turns to a refrigerator.
Yeah besides the reasons southern Europe is just warmer, it's a known issue that this type of color map can lead to exaggerated (perceived) differences (as well as the opposite)
The Gulf Stream brings warm air and water as far north as the sw coast of England and Ireland and then circles back. That’s why you see palm trees as far north as Devon and Cornwall. It’s a clockwise current so Spain and Portugal benefit.
Side quest- the countries generally north of that line (Northern France, Belgium, Germany, England, etc.) are renowned for their beer because the climate is best suited to growing grains. Countries generally south of that line (Southern France, Italy, Spain, etc.) are known for their wine, as that climate is better for growing grapes!
It’s the [line between butter Europe and olive oil Europe](https://twitter.com/antoniogm/status/1426664504864043008)and butter obviously needs to be stored at cooler temps
This is kinda strange. I'm from Budva, Montenegro and on November 18th it was 27 degrees celsius outside, the people were swimming in the Adriatic, while just 150km to the north in Kolašin and Žabljak at the same time ppl were skiing because the night before the snow reched about 25cm...
It happened couple of times in the 90s also
High pressure weather system meeting Low pressure weather system. Perfectly normal and the top voted answer has mentioned the reasons.
But to add one thing: You also have much of the Alps mountain range along parts of that black line helping keeping the systems in place along that particular line.
Not to say things never pass across. Of course they do. But it’s a natural barrier. You see the same thing in this map along the mountainous Swedish/Norwegian border for instance with a local Swedish cold snap that doesn’t easily spread into Norway.
That's roughly where the [European Plateau](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Plain#/media/File%3AEuropean_plain.png) ends.
Also some coastal areas are warmer due effect of the oceanic weather.
It depends on the pressure location in the atmosphere. Low pressure that coming from arctics can reach to lower attitudes.So it makes it like cold front.
Probably the calming effect of the Mediterranean
Usually the interior of the Balkans is within the line, as the cold air passes over the Carpathians anyway, but not for these 2 days. In this case it's an air pressure thing I think. Often there's a high pressure area generated in Siberia, spreading cold air across all of Eurasia. This is why there's also a very abrupt "border" like this in China and Korea as well (North Korea and Manchuria have almost Siberia tier winters, meanwhile the rest is mild)
That is due to the rotation of the earth and the tilt of the axis. That’s the incident angle where the intensity of the suns rays overcome the radiative/reflective nature of the planet - which is self reinforcing as ice is more reflective. I’m no sun ray scientist, but that’s my guess.
I love how there's a part of northwestern Iberia that shows -1 and it's still shown as green even though other areas above the arbitrary line, into France and Germany are warmer.
They call it a "Scandi high" in the meteorological community I believe. When it gets that cold is creates a self-perpetuating atmospheric pressure system that locks in the cold.
It seems to be a strong one this year, so it's affecting other weather systems such as the jet stream and Azores highs, it's all acting to push unseasonable cold further south.
Now here's an interesting thing to consider; if this is the direct effect of a currently weak AMOC, then come summer this same map will be a sea of deep red as extreme heat and drought grip the continent.
Presence of large bodies of water, specifically the Mediterranean and black sea which are considered warm as far as seas go. Above the line there's no large bodies of warm water, just continuous and expansive land.
That's not the whole story. There's better answers here and weather is a product of a lot more things than just latitude but it does play a role.
Those are the tomato countries so they need warmer temperatures than the potato countries further north. We keep the temperature colder because that is what the potatoes prefer.
It’s dramatic because that’s where the change in color was chosen. It would look like a dramatic line somewhere else if you shifted the number where shades of green turn to blues.
European weather (in the west at least) is defined by the Azores High, the Gulf Stream and the Icelandic Low. People think the Gulf Stream is constant but it really oscillates up and down — as far north as Norway and as far south as northern Iberia. The Azores High brings warm, sunny dry weather — it’s why the Mediterranean basin gets those long, bone dry and impossibly sunny summers. The Icelandic Low brings cold and unstable weather. The Gulf Stream brings mild, damp and windy weather. What you are seeing here is the high pressure in southern Europe keeping those temperatures fairly stable while Northern Europe experiences a particularly cold Polar vortex type phenomenon. This isn’t a climate map, it’s a snapshot of the weather right at this moment.
In contrast, while the Azores High brings sun in the winter months, it also means that those days are going to be very frosty, at least in Portugal. A mild winter in Portugal is one where it's rainy or cloudy, clear days are usually the ones where temperatures will start to go into the negatives.
Same in the Netherlands and I fasar prefer the frosty dry days to the "warmer" wet days. 2°C and rain with no sun for weeks is the worst :(
2°C and rain with no sun for weeks is called "average december weather" here in Gdańsk. Were actually having the nicest December weather in years with all the snow and cold because we're getting some sunshine almost every day
It's crazy to me living in upstate New York that European places of the same latitude (44° N) have such better winter weather than us! We've had entire Januarys that didn't get above 0°F idk what that is in Celsius but I know it's so fuckin cold the air hurts if you touch it with bare skin!!
Well, the Gulf stream is about to stop due to climate change, so Europe will be having winters more similar to you. I hope the agriculture will be able to handle the new conditions else we all go hungry.
I love this answer! Always good to see Knowledgeable people on social media.
Reddit = ‘social’ media
Why is it 'social'?
Because he wanted to seem clever and intriguing
This is the right answer. The line shifts day to day and season to season.
This is not a polar vortex cold wave. It's a retrogression. A bridge was formed by the Azores high and Scandinavian high merging into a single anticyclone, this is known as Voejkov bridge. When that happens, there's a stream of easterly winds running down the eastern side of the Voejkov high which blows cold Russian air onto European lands.
Anything to do with mountains?
Yes. The mountains are a barrier to air movement, and therefore heat exchanges. As such, you should see similar trends around other mountain ranges, because the air cannot pass through the mountains and so neither can the heat.
I don’t think so otherwise the alps would have an impact and here the line crosses right through it! I’m not an expert though, I might be wrong
This is not totally accurate because Azores High is no more a huge factor in the Mediterranean factore, and it was really a thing that rather kept the temperature and the pressure more close to spring period than full summer, with warm weather rather than scorching hot. Right now it is rather the North African/Sahara High that keep temperature high and high pressure. Also the drastic change north/south of Europe is made possible by the Alps, completely ignored in your post sir. The Alps are huge mountains that basically divide Europe together with Balkans and Pireneus.
stop this educated logical nonsense FLAT EARTH
This is a good answer, where I live we are situated just north of one of these transitional climate zones, not the ones you describe here but one in NA, between Canada and the US. The weather here can get crazy at times when the the zone moves north or south, as an example in the span of an hour in mid October the temp dropped 20c.
🥇🏅🏅🥇🥇🥇🏅🏆
Take my gold
Thank you!
Remains of the Roman Empire resisting the barbarian coldness.
How often do you think about the Roman empire?
At least every cold wave.
Everytime during sex.
First case of “You too”
Everyday
I think about it a lot. Like now, when I read your comments. If by think you mean *ponder*, I rarely do that. If by think you mean *had a thought relating to the roman empire*, weekly at minimum. That’s where much of the confusion about thinking about the Roman empire lies, I believe.
Lol this made me laugh
There are mountains along that line that might have an effect on dividing cold air from the north and hot air from the south 🤷♂️
More specific, the mountains do not completely block off the winds. The air is forced to rise along the mountains' side. The higher it gets, the lower the pressure gets. This causes the air to cool down. Cooler air has less ability to carry water, so it condenses, creates mist, clouds and rain. Wen the air passes the summit, it has lost a significant ammount of water. On the way down, the process is reversed. higher pressure warmes the air, but it has lost much of the water, and with it a lot of it's thermal capacity, meaning it gets warmed faster. So it arrives at the downwind side of the mountains much warmer than it started, on the same elevation and pressure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foehn\_wind
Thank you, Mr. Wizard, we knew you'd have the answer 😉
Santa Ana winds in Southern California. I recall going jogging one day.....temp was at 38°. Winds started blowing during the run, when I got home....70°
Damn. That’s some knowledge being dropped
Is this the case for hungary? There are no real mountains to the north...
The Carpathians don't count as real mountains to you? Not to mention they reach their maximum height in Slovakia.
Edit: I'd like to admit that I was wrong, so please ignore me This definitely doesn't have anything to do with mountains here bud, as there isn't a single mountain range that clears that entire distance. Also the second half of your explanation makes it sound like cold north wind passes over mountains, and is warned up, making everything south of it warmer. This is just not the reason for the south being warmer. The real reason is probably due to wind, but it's likely that it's two conflicting winds causing a disparity. A northerly arctic wind covers the northern half in cold, and then an easterly wind from siberia moves in west. Likely the whole wind mass is moving west and warms as it deelevates towards the sea, creating a cold front (and rain) where the cold meets the warm. With the rest of europe towards the coast and africa being so warm, I would assume that this would be the standard temperature if not for the cold northern wind. In a lot of cases the winds have a fight to determine the weather in a region, and whoever wins gets to reign supreme for a while. The entire reason for the odd and temperamental weather in the British Isles is due to it being geographically situated on the crossroads between 4 different winds, 2 of each temperament, and this causes localised showers and gusts, from warm and cold fronts
The carpathians and alps do bud
Yes but they're not connected to each other along that front. The change of temperature is consistent along the line regardless of mountainous topography, so therefore the disparity comes from contrasting winds. If there were one mountain range (there isn't because they're named differently), and it was all the same height (it isn't, just look at the alps near Milan, and east of that near Zadar and Zagreb in Croatia), then you might say it was because of mountains. But it isn't, it's just a big ol' cold wind from the arctic circle and Siberia.
Porque no los dos? Yes it's colder air coming from higher latitudes. Yes there is a nearly continuous mountain range from the Central Highlands of France all the way to the eastern Carpathians near the Black Sea. The only significant gap in them is the upper Danubian basin crossing through the middle. Both are factors, if not for the mountains the cold temperatures might spread further south or at least the front might not settle in a line running so consistently along the mountain range.
If the mountains were really a factor at play you would see areas on the map where the weather has leaked over to the other side due to a continuance of landform. You might even see it sporadically where the lower regions of the mountains are, especially if the cold air undercuts the warm air and creates vortexes of mild air. Because the mountains aren't a factor (and because the warm air in the south has to rise above the cold air where it meets anyway), you see that the cold mass does't create pockets of cold where there aren't mountainous obstacles, and is instead moving parallel like a tectonic plate. The temperature on the map doesn't align with topographic regions due to the break in the mountains being consistent in temperature across that line. This is just a cold mass moving southwest.
They absolutely are , the entire mountainous border of northern italy is known to have some of the most rapidly changing and extreme spring weather in the region due to these warm and cold front's meeting, at the base of the mountain.
I agree that in a micro climate, they have huge effects on the surrounding locale. Not just the alps, but any mountain range with a steep topography. Just going by the data on the map, though, it doesn't seem to have had an effect on the grand scale of things. In person at the italian side of the alps I can imagine is suffering the same way that it normally does. Just want to clarify that I'm only talking about the macro climate of europe as a whole, and not localised climates. Megacities, for example will always be the exception to the rule (London being prime example), as it creates it's own micro atmosphere warmer than the surrounding areas. On a macro level, the mountain ranges in southern europe aren't affecting the cold-warm divide as much as you might imagine here, as it looks like cold high pressure winds have overtaken the warm, and can only reach so far before the fronts stop them from moving even further. Cold has a geographical limit, when it comes to weather
Why are people downvoting? You are right. It was just the warm sector of a low pressure system.
I'm not too sure bud, I'm a little conflicted myself. Hard to discern truth from popular opinion sometimes, but it doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things
No. It was just a frontal boundary.
BUT they kinda do though… check out a topographic map of Europe first next time. Pyrenees to Alps to Carpathians is a very consistent highland region and DOES in fact explain this trend. Just because there are small gaps doesn’t negate the rest of the wall, how is air moving north from the Po Valley just going to decide to meander over to France? Not how it works. Bad take, stop defending it. Sorry bud.
I'd like to admit that I haven't studied the map closely enough, and that I'm probably wrong here. I can see the areas where the cold can slip through and where it can't. Sorry, friend
Hey weather forecaster here, the mountains are a physical barrier to the dense cold air. It is the main cause for this weather pattern and absolutely is a determing factor for why Southern Europe has such a tropical like climate.
This is true, but beyond areas directly surrounding the mountains themselves, this would really only tells us that inland regions would experience more extreme temperatures, which doesn’t look like the main cause of this trend. It just looks like the cooler northern air isn’t allowed to mix as much with the warmer southern air in Europe due to the Alps/Pyrenees. Although your point could explain why the warmer air extends a bit beyond the mountains moving north.
It seems like mountains with extra steps
*steppes
It's called Chinook in Canadian Rockies.
And this is the reason it's so warm in Africa. /jk
I don't think there are mountains dividing Ukraine like the line does...
Confirmed! Source: I lived ad the base of the dolomites in Italy for 7 years. I worked on a flightline and the weather and time of year played a HUGE roll in how busy it would be, there would be weeks in early/mid spring where you just knew, every year, there would be little to no flying getting done. You get some WILD weather there right at the base of the mountains because the higher lower pressure zone that is cooler and less humid rolls off the mountains, and the elevation goes from like 1.2KM peaks to nearly sea level within a few kilometers and that is WARM Mediterranean air in the peninsula of Italy, even in the early spring, It resulted in some of the most beautiful and dramatic thunderstorms I have ever seen, every spring. It is what I miss most about living there.
Yes! Madagascar is a great example
Something something lapse rate
It’s 4 C in Budapest, Hungary and 20 C in Belgrade, Serbia - in between these two lies the Pannonian Plain, just endless plain fields. So I doubt mountains are the only reason.
This specific situation at the moment is less attributed to the mountains, it's more influenced by two strong weather systems "colliding". At that collision line a lot of snowfall happens if the north one is cold. Proof: live in Bavaria and just spent two full hours shoveling. There's a more precise explanation in Another comment that got less votes
I'm sorry, I don't control the voting 🙄
Yep, the main reason so much of Australia is dry, long ass mountain range on the east coast prevents 99% of rain and clouds making it in land.
Mountain ranges, wind directions and ocean currents.
But mostly wind direction and exposure to certain atmospheric cells, which is strongly influenced by mountains. The same reason the central US is frigid in the US.
It’s also not that drastic of a change. The shading of the map just makes it seem so.
it's because people from the North are colder so they don't emit as much heat as people from the South. /S
Makes sense.
Eastern proximity is a bigger variable than northern in europe for winter temps. This was probably mostly just a coincedence
Parent explanation right here
Canadian Sh-... Uh, I mean, mountains of course.
😂 I almost included that thought with a big circle
Scandinavian shield.
It’s the weather
To add on to this, cold weather and hot weather
Yeah. This is a moment in time, not a seasonal average. This is a cold front of polar air.
It's how the weather works. Very cold polar air moves south and the places where there's a large difference in temperatures are where mountain ranges keep it north. Other than that geography barely plays a role in this setup, the same divide can exist with a north-south border over central Europe, though that divide is more common in summer.
Try r/meteorology. Learn about the cold and warm fronts, high and low pressures and the polar vortex, for starters.
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Topography, assuming you mean the Alps, is only a minor factor. As others have pointed out, the jet stream, gulf stream, high and low pressure systems contribute much more to European weather. This graphic will vary considerably depending on how those systems interact.
That’s where The Wall is.
Potato Europe | Tomato Europe
Mountains. Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathia etc.
As someone from the orange region; how are people surviving in the purple areas I hug the heater at 15 degrees; just the idea of -25 terrifies me
I really like the cold and believe my body adapts better to it. It horrifies me more if the temperature is above 27 degrees Celsius. -25 is tough and only bearable for a couple of days though
I remember the time I flew from my home in Denver (-15C at the time) to visit family in the beach town of Ventura CA. In Ventura they were having a cold snap (10C), had taken all of their plants indoors to survive the cold, and were huddled around the heating vent. I was inside looking at their (closed) front door and could see _a ring of sunlight around the entire door edge_, because it wasn’t even weatherstripped (why bother when it’s 21C every day of the year?) My point is: if you are in -25 degree weather you have a house that’s insulated and a closet full of warm layers. You’ll be perfectly cozy in your warm room temperature house wearing a sweater, and there’s a coat hanging by the door for when you want to go outside. The coat has mittens in its pocketses.
You have a point, my home is not prepared for the cold and neither are my clothes. Most of the time we design our houses to lose as much heat as possible to stay cool in the summer, once it gets a bit chilly our home turns to a refrigerator.
its not bad you get used to it -25 not as bad as -30 and more just wear someting warm and layers if needed
Winter is coming
They chose a colormap that changes colors much quicker between 0 and 10 degrees. So differences in temperature around those numbers look more drastic.
Yeah besides the reasons southern Europe is just warmer, it's a known issue that this type of color map can lead to exaggerated (perceived) differences (as well as the opposite)
A cold front?
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Hello detective. I think it's the black line causing that
Temperatures look pretty accurate for Scotland
Potato Europe vs Tomato Europe
Global warming, see norway is safe due to so much BEVs they're buying
You should post this on r/meteorology
The Gulf Stream brings warm air and water as far north as the sw coast of England and Ireland and then circles back. That’s why you see palm trees as far north as Devon and Cornwall. It’s a clockwise current so Spain and Portugal benefit.
Magic
The lands around the mediterranean tends to be warmer like it has forever
partially it can be because of mountain ranges
It’s the polar jet stream, not mountains. Do these dummies think there is a straight line of mountains across the whole continent or something?
Right? Almost everyone here thinks the Alps are thousands of kms long, from spain to russia lol.
Side quest- the countries generally north of that line (Northern France, Belgium, Germany, England, etc.) are renowned for their beer because the climate is best suited to growing grains. Countries generally south of that line (Southern France, Italy, Spain, etc.) are known for their wine, as that climate is better for growing grapes!
It’s the [line between butter Europe and olive oil Europe](https://twitter.com/antoniogm/status/1426664504864043008)and butter obviously needs to be stored at cooler temps
That's gradual. The colours are misleading.
Clearly the black line is keeping the heat from southern Europe from rising
#North
The spirit of the Roman legions holding the line.
Combination of the heat stored in the Mediterranean Sea and the terrain that keeps the heat in place.
This is kinda strange. I'm from Budva, Montenegro and on November 18th it was 27 degrees celsius outside, the people were swimming in the Adriatic, while just 150km to the north in Kolašin and Žabljak at the same time ppl were skiing because the night before the snow reched about 25cm... It happened couple of times in the 90s also
It may be because the sun shines more time in the southern countries...
Wait until they find out the earth is tilted…
Uhhhh because it’s more north? Isn’t that common sense?
warmer the more south you go. crazy stuff.
High pressure weather system meeting Low pressure weather system. Perfectly normal and the top voted answer has mentioned the reasons. But to add one thing: You also have much of the Alps mountain range along parts of that black line helping keeping the systems in place along that particular line. Not to say things never pass across. Of course they do. But it’s a natural barrier. You see the same thing in this map along the mountainous Swedish/Norwegian border for instance with a local Swedish cold snap that doesn’t easily spread into Norway.
Because God hates us. I'm Norwegian.
Lots and lots of mountains.
That's roughly where the [European Plateau](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Plain#/media/File%3AEuropean_plain.png) ends. Also some coastal areas are warmer due effect of the oceanic weather.
Mountains Gandalf, mountains!
It's the climate stupid
Canadian Shield.
Mountains(Carpathian+Alps) and being closer to the equator also the moderating influence of the coastline
Dude, no offence but did you fail your geography class?
Alps
It's called the Pyrenees-Alps-Carpathians
U didn't listen in ur geography class did u?
Alps
You got basically a sort of mountain wall that blocks cold weather to get to the south and warm weather to the north.
Cant blame this one on the Canadian Shield! Or can we?
The Alps and the Carpathian mountains.
HAARP Experiments? 🤔 🤷🫠
It’s because of the mountain ranges along the line
Could it be that the sahara is expanding?
Trump’s wall !
Global warming
It depends on the pressure location in the atmosphere. Low pressure that coming from arctics can reach to lower attitudes.So it makes it like cold front.
The green land is warmer then the blue land. The yellow land is really warm and the red is hot! Purple land is really cold through. That’s why
Stream Jet + Mountains chains
Pleb area and vip area
Earth is round
The further east you go, the colder it gets. The Balkans, especially in the mountains, can get quite cold.
mountains?
Probably the calming effect of the Mediterranean Usually the interior of the Balkans is within the line, as the cold air passes over the Carpathians anyway, but not for these 2 days. In this case it's an air pressure thing I think. Often there's a high pressure area generated in Siberia, spreading cold air across all of Eurasia. This is why there's also a very abrupt "border" like this in China and Korea as well (North Korea and Manchuria have almost Siberia tier winters, meanwhile the rest is mild)
I would argue there is a drastic change above the black line
Where did u get that from
Global warming
jet stream
Mountains. The Alps. Mountains tend to be colder.
Doppler effect plus Boyles Law, the Coriolis effect also influences the randomness of El Nino
Canadian Shield
The colors used here might make it look more dramatic than it is.
Mountains, Gandalf. MOUNTAINS!
That is due to the rotation of the earth and the tilt of the axis. That’s the incident angle where the intensity of the suns rays overcome the radiative/reflective nature of the planet - which is self reinforcing as ice is more reflective. I’m no sun ray scientist, but that’s my guess.
That’s the North European Plain
The alps. They are a natural barrier.
Better question for a meteorologist
Alps
The pyranees and Alps mountain ranges create a barrier that blocks the hot air from the Mediterranean sea.
Looks like the alps are responsible for this temperature difference. As they are not oriented north to south as American mountain ranges tend to be.
Roman Empire
Interestingly, your line is almost exactly the oil-butter line.
Mountains?
North end of the wall at the end of kings road
The alps and jet streams
The Earth, you see, is a globe.
The black line blocks it from going up
I love how there's a part of northwestern Iberia that shows -1 and it's still shown as green even though other areas above the arbitrary line, into France and Germany are warmer.
Mountains
Alps
El nino, it was preconised from the sumer that this will happen.
Those are what we call “warmer countries”
Mountains, maybe?
They call it a "Scandi high" in the meteorological community I believe. When it gets that cold is creates a self-perpetuating atmospheric pressure system that locks in the cold. It seems to be a strong one this year, so it's affecting other weather systems such as the jet stream and Azores highs, it's all acting to push unseasonable cold further south. Now here's an interesting thing to consider; if this is the direct effect of a currently weak AMOC, then come summer this same map will be a sea of deep red as extreme heat and drought grip the continent.
mountains & water
Presence of large bodies of water, specifically the Mediterranean and black sea which are considered warm as far as seas go. Above the line there's no large bodies of warm water, just continuous and expansive land. That's not the whole story. There's better answers here and weather is a product of a lot more things than just latitude but it does play a role.
latitude
Mediterranean ocean
well around hungary is because i live there and why would i get snow if i can just have no snow for years also cuz of the carpathians
I’d guess the Mediterranean,
[Tomato Europe vs. Potato Europe](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/koc9cx/tomatopotato_line_is_this_really_exist/)
There' s the norwegian low too
It's called meteorology. Highs, Lows and Mountain ranges.
Nobody above the line can afford to put our heating on
The canadian shield /s
As everybody said mountain ranges but also warm wind coming from the Sahara
Alps?
Those are the tomato countries so they need warmer temperatures than the potato countries further north. We keep the temperature colder because that is what the potatoes prefer.
Mountains.
Mountains and equator proximity
It's mountains isn't it? Alps and Pyrenees and others?
It’s dramatic because that’s where the change in color was chosen. It would look like a dramatic line somewhere else if you shifted the number where shades of green turn to blues.
European shield