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Comment by dmoy | Hacker News Reader

Semi related to this exercise, I really forgot how far north most of Northern Europe is. Not even talking Scandinavia... mentally in my head I didn't have France and Germany on the same-ish latitude as WA.

All of England is north of the north-most point in the lower 48? Huh.

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Over half of Canada's population lives farther south than Seattle, which is also crazy to think about.

I had to check that for myself, and wow, you weren't kidding.

2015 population of Canada south of Seattle (~47.6°N): ~22 million (https://imgur.com/a/azeTbwz)

2015 Canada population: ~35 million

Sources:

- NASA SEDAC Population Estimator (https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/mapping/popest/gpw-v4/)

- Statistics Canada (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/150929/dq150...)

North of the contiguous US but certainly not north of the continental US.

/pedantry

Yea sorry, wrong word

Its the moderating effect of the Mediterranean! Its wild to see the temperature differences of Wisconsin, Montana, Dakota(s) compared to France & Spain. All that water helps insulate Europe even those its at a northern latitude.

There's also the oceanic currents carrying warm water from the gulf. Europe is in a very lucky position.

It's actually primarily from the AMOC which is bringing warm water up to the Northern Atlantic from the gulf [0].

Fun fact: a possible consequence of climate change is the near term collapse of the AMOC which would cause drastic cooling in Europe (it also has more severe long-term consequences like leading to an anoxic ocean that emits hydrogen-sulfide instead of oxygen, such events have happened multiple times in Earth's past and played a part in major extinction events [1]).

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturnin...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event

Currently in Spain and originally from Seattle. Was thinking this very thing earlier today.

Looking at a map Seattle is roughly the same latitude as Zurich and Budapest.

It's great teeing off after dinner in Scotland.

Yeah, my mental map of Europe is definitely severely warped.

For the longest time, I used to consider myself safe from the detrimental effects of Vitamin D deficiency, which I'd read can be felt as far south as London in Winter.

"Good thing I live in Berlin, which is surely south of London" :)

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