Climate Number: 412 million cubic yards per second
At 27 degrees North and ten miles east of Florida’s Jupiter Inlet, a 50-mile wide current of warm water flows past the Peninsula at an average rate of 412 million cubic yards per second. Known as the Florida Current, this is a critical component of the Gulf Stream, which is in turn a critical component of Earth’s ocean circulation. Without this ocean circulation, the tropics would be too hot and the high latitudes too cold to support life as we know it. When warm ocean waters collide with cold air masses, weather systems form. Because it brings warm waters up from the south, the Florida Current is also responsible for the growth of coral at the relatively high-latitude of the Florida Keys. Without the warm waters of the current, coral – a tropical species – would not be able to survive this far north. First identified by Ponce de Leon in 1513, the flow of the Florida Current varies by about ten percent from its weakest flow to its strongest flow on a period of two to three years.
For Comparison: 412 million cubic yards per second dwarfs the flow of even the largest of Earth’s rivers. The “Mighty Mississippi,” for example, flows past Baton Rogue Louisiana at a rate of less than 17,000 cubic yards per second.
To view a schematic diagram of the Florida Current, visit: http://www.earthgauge.net/climate-facts-image-library#6. The image comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is in the public domain.
Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
Source: DiNezio, et al. “Observed Interannual Variability of the Florida Current: Wind Forcing and the North Atlantic Oscillation.” Journal of Climate 39 (2009): 721-736.
