Far north

My previous posting made me think about the fact that many people don’t realise how far north we are in Europe. If one asks people to mention a European city on the same latitude as New York, they might come up with London or Paris, but the correct answer is Madrid. Scotland and Denmark are so far north that very few people live at these latitudes in areas not heated by the Gulf Stream (Glasgow and Copenhagen are on the same latitude as the southernmost part of Alaska, for instance). This is why the prospect of the Gulf Stream shutting down is so scary. Southern Europe might suddenly get very crowded…