What powers the Gulf Stream and what will happen to the weather in the UK if and when it slows down or stops?

Question

Also, how does the Gulf Stream work and what might cause it to stop or change course?

Answer 1

If you were to look at a map of the ocean streams, you would note two striking things. First, they are all interconnected. Second, they cover the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans...pretty much all the salt water on our globe.

As a result of the first observation, the Gulf Stream, which is a warm stream starting in the Caribbean, cutting up the eastern coastline of the U.S., and crossing over to the UK area, is unlikely to stop, slow down, or change directions without the other streams going through major changes as well.

As a result of the second observation, the change in all the streams over the face of the Earth would change the climates about everywhere; not just the UK. Rainy areas might become dry; dry areas might become wet.

Lack of the Gulf Stream to moderate the ocean off the UK, for example, would bring down the temperatures on the island. Perhaps the cooler offshore water would be less likely to gin up storms because cold water packs less energy than warm water. The famous London fog might become a thing of the past.

This is a very timely question. There are indications of major shifts in the oceanic streams. This is due, at least in part, to the melting of ice and snow in the Arctic and on Greenland. That influx of fresh water into the ocean is causing the Arctic Stream, which feeds the Gulf Stream, to change direction and force. And due to their interconnectivity throughout the world, all the oceanic streams are destined to change as well.

Answer 2

The winds and the rotation of the Earth powered most of the ocean moving. The lands slow and deviate the streams.

The water for the Gulf Stream take the heat from the Sun in the middle Atlantic Ocean, in the Caribbean Sea and in the Mexico Gulf (and the name from this last place). Without the Gulf Stream, Europe weather would be as cold as the Canadian.

Answer 3

The Gulf Stream is part of a much larger ocean circulation system, which is powered, in part by the sinking of cold salty water. As water in the Gulf of Mexico is warmed by the sun this pleasant warm water tracks across the Atlantic and up the western side of Europe because as it travels northward it cools, evaporation also leads the amount of salt in it to increases causing the density of the water to increase. Being dense and cold it sinks to the ocean floor where it flows Southward again. Being warm it raises the temperature of Western Europe especially the UK to higher than would be expected at that latitude (compare UK climate with places such as Canada and North America which are on a similar latitude latitude).
It has been postulated that as the ice caps of Greenland and the Arctic melt the increase of fresh water will decrease the saltiness and hence the density of the water at the northern end of the current and so it will no longer sink effectively removing a main driver of the Gulf Stream stopping the current and returning the climate of Western Europe to one more similar to that of other places at a similar latitude. I think that this idea has now been rejected. I have put a couple of links below which may be of help