Atlantic Ocean by three inter-connected currents: the Gulf Stream which flows north-east from the North American coast at Cape Hatteras; the North Atlantic Current, a branch of the Gulf Stream which flows northward from the Grand Banks; and the Subpolar Front, an extension of the North Atlantic Current, a wide, vaguely defined region separating the subtropical gyre from the subpolar gyre. This system of currents transport warm water into the North Atlantic, without which temperatures in the North Atlantic and Europe would plunge dramatically. North of the North Atlantic Gyre, the cyclonic North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre plays a key role in climate
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