ABSTRACT
The annual range of sea surface temperature between the mean values of the warmest and coldest months is displayed in fig. 8.1; and fig. 8.2 shows the annual mean values. Annual ranges exceeding 15°C are confined to a few more or less land-locked seas and to waters over the continental shelf off eastern North America and east Asia I in middle latitudes, where they are mainly due to the effect of cold winds blowing off the continents in the winter. Over most of the oceans of the world the annual range is less than 5°C, greater values being almost only found in middle latitudes. The ranges are generally greater close to land and (no doubt, due to the land effect) are, on the whole, greater in the northern hemisphere. The pack-ice surface in the central Arctic undergoes a range of about 40°C.
