Evidence found that vital warm ocean currents are weakening

This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. End of dialog window. (NewsNation) — Winters across the Eastern Seaboard and Midwest aren’t typically thought to be mild, but a change in ocean currents might dial up weather to new extremes. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, known as AMOC, is a system of ocean currents that brings warm water from the Caribbean Sea to the Northern Atlantic, keeping temperatures mild in the northern U. S. and Europe through the winter. Now, satellites show that AMOC has been transporting less heat to the North, providing strong evidence of a slowdown in these vital currents. The study from the University of Reading, U. K., found that the heat flux out of the northern Atlantic has decreased by 18% in 40 years. In another study, researchers left ocean buoys out across the Atlantic to measure water pressure changes and found a 10% decline in AMOC strength from 2004 to 2026. While the new study is still under peer review, a scientist uninvolved with the study is calling it “some of the strongest evidence so far that the AMOC has weakened over the last 40 years.” Other experts are making dramatic declarations: “For the first 30 years of my career—  I always considered the risk of crossing that AMOC tipping point a few percent. Now in the light of research in the last 5 years or so, I’ve actually had to revise that to 50/50,” reports Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He says that a collapse of AMOC could lead to a dramatic change in rainfall that could leave some regions dry, causing shifts in the food supply that may affect migration and political stability. If temperatures in the Northeast U. S. cool down, sea levels could rise a foot and a half across the coast and cause major flooding in its many large, populous cities. “The only way to really reduce the risk of crossing that tipping point is to get out of fossil fuels as fast as we can,” adds Rahmstorf. In the case of AMOC collapse, rising global temperatures could counteract its global cooling effects, some scientists predict, but vast quantities of CO2 would remain in the atmosphere, which researchers have not found the technology to remove. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.