Buenos Aires 100,000,000 years ago was a very different place! The location was significantly further south probably around 51° South 59° West near a sub-polar low, currently Buenos Aires is around 34° South and 58° West at a mid-latitude sub-tropical high. The Koppen classification would be similar to today as a Cfa but could be Cfc, similar to the Falkland islands. The macro-climate control factors greatly affected the location and weather patterns. The formation of the polar ice caps had yet to develop causing less dynamic wind patterns throughout the world. The inversions would be only a few degrees cooler due to the more homogenous air parcels. For instance the cold arctic and polar air would have much less extreme temperatures causing less dynamic competition. Without the extreme cold of the ice field and albedo of glaciers reflecting back solar radiation the planet was much warmer. In Antarctica the semi-permanent high that lies over Buenos Aires today does not exist, creating a more homogenous climate prone to sporadic weather, humidity, and rainfall. The wuss confrontations between airmasses would most likely cause a regular pattern of status clouds throughout the year with the occasional formation of cumulo-nimbus structure. The location of Buenos Aires 100,000,000 years ago was much further south, somewhere a little north of where Tierra del Fuego is today. Because of the further south location, Buenos Aires has a less direct sun angle through the fall and winter months, March through October. The lack of sun angle still creates a high seasonality for the location but because less dynamic air circulations the overall temperature did not drop significantly like it does today. Also because Buenos Aires is further south it now is below current mid-latitudinal cyclones, eliminating extreme weather such as tornadoes.
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| Buenos Aires one hundred million years ago! |
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| Climate graph for Buenos Aires in the past, made by your truly |
The Atlantic Ocean is constricted to the north and to the south and is much less wide across than it is today; this causes the ocean to be much shallower as well. This relatively small shallow ocean has no dynamic water currents that circulate large quantities of water throughout the earth, and without the presence of cold polar/arctic water and glacial melt the ocean is far warmer than it is today. This extreme warmth from the ocean helps to moderate the climate of this maritime region, even more than today. During this period the dynamic of the air patterns were much less prevalent but due to the suns angle seasonality still existed. The warm water temperatures of the ocean evaporated more water into the atmosphere creating dense clouds of moist tropical maritime/continental air. These thick parcels of air were most likely bombarded with occasional cold continental air from the south creating heavy rains and occasional ice storms. The occurrence of snow was not present in this area quite yet! The plant life that existed during this time was smaller trees, small conifers, and grassland, this type of flora did not have a large impact on the climate, much different than today. People had yet to come into play for any anthropological climate control factors however volcanic activity probably played a role in carbon emissions, creating an insulation of black body carbons in the atmosphere further perpetuating warmer climates around the world, even at high latitude locations.
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| Ice storm formation |
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| Modern Day Buenos Aires |
Buenos Aires 100,000,000 into the future will be similar to today but possibly much much warmer and moister although the Koppen classification would remain Cfa. Buenos Aires location moves north toward the ITCZ and equator creating much less seasonality due to a more direct sun angle. The move north toward moister air creates a more humid environment year round with heavy rains experienced during the new “wet season”. The wet season would be toward the spring and fall because of the competing air masses and the formation of super-cell thunderstorms. The precipitation would come in sporadic torrential downpours rather than a long period of consistent rain, similar to what some areas of Brazil experience today. Humans will either be loooong gone at this point or have created some crazy means of technological advance we cannot fathom yet, similar to bringing an X-box back to the day of Atari, or an I-phone back to the day of pagers. The positive and negative feedback mechanisms will have been at play for many years leading to this point, creating a large open system free of anthropological influence. The negative feedback mechanisms will be trying to correct the environmental degradation our brief existence caused throughout the planet, setting into motion a more natural cycle of activity. The Terjung classification of Buenos Aires in the future would be repressive/hellish!!
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| Buenos Aires in the future, made by guess who |
This quite possibly could be the case, the temperature would be much higher and the humidity unbearable. The warmth on the planet over the last few million years has increased significantly and ice fields, glaciers, and icecaps have either melted all the way or most of the way. This could have the potential to put Buenos Aires under tens of feet of water, creating an Atlantis like climate where weather is no longer relevant but rather ocean currents. The large macro climate factor will be the halt of the major ocean current due to the introduction of massive amounts of fresh water into the ocean, this process will slow or halt ocean gyres. This process will create strange weather patterns throughout the world. Some of the strange weather patterns experience might be high altitude mountain tornadoes, oceanic fires (from former pollution), and desert snowstorms etc etc….. Another phenomenon could be oversized gigantic fish that roam freely without fear of fishing and feeding on the abundance of oceanic food due to warm stagnant water.
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| Future of Buenos Aires location |
http://www.worldexecutive.com/locations/latin_america/argentina/buenos_aires/weather.html
