Where do all cold and warm ocean currents originate?

If you live near the ocean and the ocean currents are warm, then would the humidity cause it to b warm or cool

• theres this place called managua in nicaragua and it is in central america and is 20 miles away from the ocean. The ocean current around there is warm but in my mind im thinking if a place is near the ocean then it would be colder but this place is warmer than other places that are far away from the ocean like addis abbaba in ethiopia in africa. Addis ababa also has a warm ocean current but is 120 miles way from the ocean but temperatures average like 62 degrees F and in managua temp averages about 81 degrees F So im totally confused

• Answer:

  You are confusing the humidity level with air temperature. The level of humidity can cause the air temperature to feel warmer. Why? Because the closer you approach 100% humidity or water vapor in the air, the less your body can release moisture into the air (which makes you feel cooler). That doesn't mean that it will actually cool the air temperature. We pay attention to the "heat index" in the summer as a 85 degree day with low humidity will feel like 85 degrees, but a 85 degree day with high humidity may feel like 95 degrees because our bodies can not cool down by perspiration. The water temperature is a moderator of the air temperature. The warmer or cooler the water is (and in the ocean this depends on the water currents) the shorter or longer it will take for the temperature to rise with a warm air front. Remember, several things like latitude, elevation, distance from the water, temperature of the water, direction of the air current, cloud cover also effect the air temperature. Generally, the closer you are to the large body of water the more regulated the temperature of the air. In the desert, the temperature can differentiate as much as 70 - 90 degrees from dawn to dusk reaching lows of 40, 50 and highs of 120 and mainly because there are no large bodies of water nearby helping to regulate the air temperature. Cloud cover at night will help insulate the land and hold in heat, whereas a cloudless night will let heat escape faster cooling the air temperature. Despite your similar latitude sampling of Adis Abeba and Managua, you may have too many factors making them less similar than they first appear because of similar latitudes and you may be comparing apples to oranges. Compare a particular regions temperatures and based on the distance to the ocean, the less the temperature will fluctuate. This is also the case for the Great Lakes. As you get closer to the body of water, during spring as things are heating up from winter it takes more heat and warm air to raise the temperature of the body of water and thus the temperature of the air by the water is going to take longer to rise than it is further away from the water over land. The opposite happens in autumn into winter, the air temperature will drop faster further away from the body of water because the warmer water temperature is keeping the air temperature warmer by the body of water. Maybe TMI, but good luck.