| | |  | Clouds approaching. Summer in Denmark. | |
Europe’s climate and weather
From a thermodynamic point of view, climate normally divides Europe in three parts, from North to South. Northern areas include the polar regions, southern areas the tropical regions, and central areas are located at middle latitudes, where the North-South temperature gradient varies the most. In other words, it is where cold polar air masses encounter warm tropical air.
Latitudes where polar and tropical air masses meet vary, depending on the seasons. They are located more to the South in winter (cold air reaches southern regions) and more to the North in summer (warm air arrives in northern regions). Strong atmospheric currents, the so-called Westerly Winds, blow aloft from West to East all along the hemisphere at those latitudes, driven by the Polar Jet Stream.
Westerly winds do not blow at the exact same latitude, but they oscillate along their eastwards direction making N-S waves. These waves generate high pressure systems in their crests and low pressure systems in their troughs, thereby bringing warm air to the North and cold air to the South, respectively. Warm and Cold Fronts are the meteorological features that correspond, on the ground, to the associated changes in air temperature we can feel and measure.
These meteorological fronts are generally characterised by specific cloud types and meteorological phenomena. Warm fronts are associated with stratified clouds at different heights and persistent rain and wind, while cold fronts are associated with vertically developing cumuliform clouds accompanied by heavy storms and gusty winds.
Extreme weather conditions can also occur, with heavy storms and heavy rain, and can generate dramatic flooding. This has been happening more frequently in recent years.
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