Britain’s weather is going to get even WORSE due to slow down of Gulf Stream

The famously awful weather in Great Britain is set to get even worse as the ocean current which keeps our climate mild begins to slow down.

That's the warning from a piece of research into a mysterious process which is causing the Gulf Stream to decelerate.

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This ocean current carries warm water from the Gulf of Mexico towards Britain, stopping us from freezing solid during winter.

Up until now, scientists believed climate change was hijacking the Gulf Stream by melting the Arctic ice sheets and flooding the ocean with fresh water, lower the salinity (saltiness) of the Atlantic.

"It appears that this 10-year slowdown is not related to salinity," said Kathryn Kelly, an oceanographer at the University of Washington.

"It's just backwards. The North Atlantic has actually been getting saltier."

Kelly and her team have just published a paper which found that a current around the southern tip of Africa could be causing the problem.

The so-called Agulhas Current brings warm Indian Ocean water along the tip of Africa into the Atlantic.

Kelly believes this flow of water may be affecting the Gulf Stream.

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"We've found that the two are connected, but I don't think we've found that one causes the other," Kelly said.

"It's more likely that whatever changed the Agulhas changed the whole system."

"Most people have thought this current should be driven by a salinity change, but maybe it's the [Southern Ocean] winds."

If the Gulf Stream slows down, it would mean harsher winters here in Britain.

However, it might not have quite as severe an effect due to the effects of global warming and climate change.

"If the Gulf Stream doesn't carry as much heat from the tropics, it just means that the North Atlantic is not going to warm up as fast as the rest of the ocean - it's not going to cool down," Kelly continued.

Previous research has suggested the Gulf Stream slow down could "spare Europe from worst of climate change" by