How does solar radiation affect sea surface temperatures as well as ocean currents? Students were asked this question by their instructor. Ms. Sanders displayed the map you see here. The colors of the map represent annual mean sea surface temperatures (SST). Students observed that the average ocean temperatures appeared to vary with latitude, warmest at the equator and coldest near the poles.
Ms. Sanders agreed with the students and then posed this question. She displayed the image of the Gulf Stream ocean current.

The Gulf Stream originates near the southern tip of Florida and travels along the east coast of the United States and across the North Atlantic. South of Greenland, the Gulf Stream widens and slows, becoming a vast, slow-moving, warm current known as the North Atlantic Drift that passes over western Europe. Hypothesize about the climates of the two locations indicated in the top map, Newfoundland in Canada (left) and Scotland (right).
A) As the Gulf Stream travels north, its warm waters cool and there is no great differences between the climates of the two locations.
B) The warm Gulf Stream and its associated winds keep the climate of Scotland much warmer than Newfoundland even though they are at approximately the same latitude.
C) Because the two locations are found at approximately the same latitude and both are in constant with ocean currents and sea breezes, we would expect them to have similar climates.
D) The warm Gulf Stream has cooled considerably by the time it reaches the higher latitudes, causing condensation of evaporated ocean waters. We expect Scotland to have much more snow than Newfoundland.