Why is the East Coast So Much Colder than the West Coast?

North America as a continent has some really weird weather anomalies. For example, the United States compared to Europe has far cooler temperatures on average even though the country itself is a lot further south. Now yes, an obvious reason for this is the Gulf Stream. This transports warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, the Southern Atlantic, up towards the European continent. This helps to make Europe a lot more hospitable than it otherwise would be. But this warm water passes right by the U.S. East Coast. The ocean temperatures here are a lot warmer than on the corresponding West Coast, but somehow the Pacific Northwest here around Seattle experiences a lot less snowfall than the northeastern coastline. Now we know snowfall and elevation go hand in hand, but even in this aspect, the West Coast is just as, if not more mountainous in higher elevation than the corresponding East Coast. And not to mention, the Pacific Northwest is not super obvious in a lot of these maps, but it is significantly further north than New England. This map does a very good job of illustrating this by highlighting the 45th line of latitude here, which acts as the border between the U.S. and Canada in upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Places like New York City and all of the coastline we're talking about here, it's much further south than this point. And yet the West Coast, like Seattle, even Portland, are significantly above this line of latitude. So you can see why I find this map of the snowfall and the huge difference between the Pacific Northwest and the East Coast so fascinating. Ocean temperatures, topography, latitude, none of these fully account for this huge difference. Rather, the main culprit here is the sheer size and unique shape of the North American landmass and how it interacts with all the various weather systems. So in the Northern Hemisphere, the prevailing winds go from west to east due to the rotation of the earth. And due to this, a lot of moisture, along with the moderating effects of the ocean, do get pushed onto the Pacific Northwest. This is the main reason why the temperature here in the winter is so moderate and in the summer is so enjoyable. But this moderating effect only makes it so far inland before it begins to rise up the mountains, lose its moisture, and cool off. And this is when we have to talk more about Canada. Because having a huge landmass this far up north has a massive impact on the weather for the rest of the continent. So in the same way that the Pacific Ocean has a huge moderating effect, this landmass essentially does the opposite. In the summertime, you'll be surprised just how warm it gets up here, but in the wintertime, the opposite is true. The temperature here gets extremely frigid very quickly. And for a number of reasons, including things like the jet stream, this cold air mass frequently shoots down south. This cold air first makes it into the Midwest, places like Minnesota, Chicago, if you ever heard of these places having arctic blast, this is what causes it. And when the cold air mass gets down into the continental US, this is where they get swept up by those westerly winds that are coming down off the Rocky Mountains. This takes that cold air mass and drags it all the way towards the east coast of the United States. And this cold air coming from North Canada is a big reason why this area of the country is often colder than this area of the country. Even though over here, it's further north, more mountainous, and even the ocean temperature is cooler than the ocean temperature over here. And sometimes this westerly flow of cold air can come into contact with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico, and it combines into a massive snowstorm called a nor'easter. And these things can dump an ungodly amount of snow in a very short amount of time. So due to the weird shape of the North American continent, that's how this relatively far south area of land that's not very mountainous next to a warm body of water can receive so much snowfall and be generally colder and stormier than the corresponding Pacific Northwest, which on the surface should be the colder, snowier place. If you guys enjoyed, make sure to leave a like on this video, subscribe for more content in the future, and I'll see you guys in the next one.