By southern sea, I mean all the sea between Antarctica and Africa/S America/Australia. The pacific ocean is equally vast but yet it’s milder. I was looking at global winds on a website and almost the entire Southern Sea perpetually faces 60+ kmph winds. There are even 3000+ km long stretches of continuous 80 kmph winds. Why?
In: 1893
The Sea is rough because of the wind. The Wind is strong because of the massive low pressure zones created by having ocean water present that is usually warmer than the air above. Significant winds are generated due to these massive air pressure differentials. Same thing happens in the northern hemisphere too which experiences the most severe pressure differentials in winter.
There are a lot of comments about currents but the southern ocean currents are slow and insignificant compared to equatorial currents, gulf stream etc.
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