In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, humanity is plunged into a nightmarish international storm that sends the planet into a new ice age. 

And although the blockbuster was consigned to the realms of sci-fi, the science behind the frightening scenario is true. 

In a matter of years, melting glaciers could shut down the Gulf Stream – the system of currents that brings warmth to the northern hemisphere, experts say. 

Without this additional heat source, average temperatures could drop by several degrees in North America, parts of Asia and Europe, and people would see ‘severe and cascading consequences around the world’.

Scientists warn that an abrupt shutdown of Atlantic Ocean currents is looking more likely than ever, as computer simulations find a ‘cliff-like’ tipping point looming in the near future. 

The study authors, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, don’t know exactly when the collapse will happen, although a previous study put it as soon as next year.

‘We are moving closer to the collapse, but we’re not sure how much closer,’ said lead author Rene van Westen, a climate scientist and oceanographer at Utrecht University.

‘We are heading towards a tipping point.’

When a global weather calamity like the one in The Day After Tomorrow may happen is ‘the million-dollar question’, according to van Westen. 

‘We unfortunately can’t answer [that] at the moment,’ he said. 

‘It also depends on the rate of climate change we are inducing as humanity.’ 

The Gulf Stream is part of a much wider system of currents, officially called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC. 

Described as ‘the conveyor belt of the ocean’, it transports warm water near the ocean’s surface northwards – from the tropics up to the northern hemisphere.

When the warm water reaches the North Atlantic (around Europe and the UK, and the US east coast), it releases the heat and freezes. 

As this ice forms, salt is left behind in the ocean water. 

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