Europe - Climate, Regions, Weather: As Francis Bacon, the great English Renaissance man of letters, aptly observed, “Every wind has its weather.” It is air mass circulation that provides the main key to Europe’s climate, the more so since masses of Atlantic Ocean origin can pass freely through the lowlands, except in the case of the Caledonian mountains of Norway. Polar air masses derived from areas close to Iceland and tropical masses from the Azores bring, respectively, very different conditions of temperature and humidity and produce different climatic effects as they move eastward. Continental air masses from eastern Europe have equally easy access westward. The
