Winter storms over Labrador Sea influence Gulf Stream system

The Gulf Stream system plays an important role in climate. The weakening of this system that has been observed over the last two decades is therefore a cause for concern and much debate. The question is whether the measurable changes are already due to human-induced climate change -- model simulations predict such an influence with high probability for the future. A new study concludes that the currently observed weakening can be interpreted, at least in part, as a natural fluctuation following some extremely cold winters in the Labrador Sea in the 1990s.