Europe the mainland until rising sea levels cut them off. Europe lies mainly in the temperate climate zones, being subjected to prevailing westerlies. The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The Gulf Stream not only carries warm water to Europe's coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the average temperature throughout
2013–14 Atlantic winter storms in Europe it explosively deepened before reaching Western Europe. Deepening below is considered uncommon in the North Atlantic, but has been recorded on a number of occasions, measured from ships transiting the ocean and from land based-recording stations. Offshore the minimum low pressure of the "Dirk" storm was forecast to reach a low of . On land the low pressure during the storm was measured at on 24 December at Stornoway, Isle of Lewis off the north west coast of Scotland. This the lowest measured in Britain and Ireland since 1886 (127 years), when a low of was recorded in Belfast, Northern