The climate is mild enough in North West Ireland for palm trees to grow because of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation which transports heat from the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics to the North Atlantic. The photo below is being used as an illustration in a publication of the U.S. Geological Survey on the subject of rapid climate change. It is included as figure 7 (with permission) in chapter one (SAP 3.4.1) written by Peter Clark, Andrew Weaver, Ed Brook, Edward Cook, Tom Delworth, and Konrad Steffen. The photo was made on January 15, 2004 at Mullaghmore Head in County Sligo, Ireland.
A draft version of the paper is online now at http://www.usgs.gov/peer_review/docs/SAP_3.4.1_pr_draft.pdf and I plan to update this link when the final version of the paper is published.
Next photo of Mullaghmore Head. Previous photo of Mullaghmore Head.
