Questions tagged [weather]
For questions related to the climate, temperature and precipitation that a world might experience. Compare [climate] and [seasons].
336
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Could a planet have a single source of wind?
I was creating a map of the air currents in my world, working back from the climates of the land (which I had already determined). (The world consists of one continent, similar to Pangea, with empty ...
20
votes
3answers
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How cold does it have to be to freeze a waterfall
I have designed a group of medieval towns located on a valley, all of them connected by a navigable river wich ends on a big waterfall. There are some elevators at the side of the waterfall that ...
9
votes
4answers
292 views
If we dug a really big hole on Mars, how long would it last?
How long will a 400 km wide 30 km deep pit (trench or crater) with a relatively shallow (for stability) gradient of slope of 20 degrees from the edge to the surface of the planets crust be expected to ...
5
votes
1answer
90 views
What would happen if ocean currents suddenly stopped (or changed)?
I'm thinking about a device (in a story I'm writing) that could control ocean currents, and I'm wondering how it could be weaponized. For example, if an ocean current was suddenly stopped, what might ...
7
votes
2answers
708 views
Permanent Mist/Fog in an area [duplicate]
How could a region have a (semi-) permanent mist/fog?
As close to natural as possible but possible enhancements are an option like:
Technological : can both be chemical or mechanical but should ...
4
votes
2answers
235 views
How could a human society survive in areas with average annual temperatures below -30°C?
I ask this question because in my fictional world, I want to create extremely cold, populated areas, especially in Northernmost areas, but I noticed that in our real world, regions with less than -30°...
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5answers
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What would happen to the world if all lightning stopped?
Imagine you have a weather-controlling device that you use to eliminate all lightning strikes. They're just too dangerous. What happens to the earth? Does lightning serve a necessary purpose to any ...
10
votes
3answers
258 views
Hurricane-force winds or gentle breezes in an O'Neill Cylinder?
Let's consider an O'Neill cylinder with a radius of 3.2km and length of 20km. In the classic O'Neill design, we have three large axis-aligned windows in the shell, alternating between purlins of ...
6
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3answers
172 views
Can Shade Balls be used to stop hurricanes?
I think it would make sense for hurricanes to be combatted using shade balls to block the evaporation of the ocean into the storm.
What would we need to stop a hurricane?
Info on shade balls.
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7answers
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What would be the effect of a giant magical fireball burning in the ocean?
Original prompt:
"What would be the effect of a giant magic fireball burning in the ocean?
Imagine there's a magical fireball that stays in one spot in the middle of the ocean and emits heat at a ...
5
votes
4answers
199 views
Can a Jupiter-Like Gas Giant Have Deep, Dark Storms?
For this question, I was inspired by the following image of the "Jupiter Abyss":
What I want to know is, can a Jupiter-like gas giant have thousands of giant black storms, kind of like what I've ...
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votes
3answers
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Once a year, swords rain from the sky. How does this change the world? [closed]
Assuming an earth-like planet, how would annual, hour-long, literal bladestorms transform: ecology, geology, and human society?
Assuming the first one happens tomorrow, what changes in the next few ...
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2answers
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Would this setup of a terraformed moon hold up?
[Edits added in italic]
BACKGROUND
A few thousand years from now the moon has become one of many habitable places in the solar system. Economy, constant growing knowledge and human will made drastic ...
3
votes
2answers
245 views
What would the temperatures on a terraformed moon be like?
In the far future the moon is terraformed and maintains earth-like conditions for people to walk around freely. Gravity is a 6th of earth's. We assume the atmosphere is "well-functioning for human ...
3
votes
3answers
324 views
The Earth-like world's been shrouded by darkness. For how long would the civilization be able survive?
In this setting, the Continent has been hit by several catastrophes, caused by the inner workings of planet's tectonics, and the eruption of a volcano far on the other side of the world. Gravest of ...
6
votes
2answers
159 views
A semi perpetual gloomy climate is possible?
I'd like to know if a climate with snowy and gloomy winters and rainy and cloudy summers is possible. Because the climate of Russia in summer is sunny enough and the Icelandic ones isn't so snowy. So ...
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5answers
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What would be the seasonal impact on the indoor climate of a giant dome habitation? [closed]
I am writing about a city inside a dome which protects it from an inhospitable environment. I would like the dome to have it's own self-regulating ecosystem, at least enough to provide rainfall ...
3
votes
3answers
177 views
What would the weather be like after the world is shaded by an immense object?
I have a situation in my imaginary setting, and I am specifically interested in how this situation would affect the weather.
The situation is as follows:
Positioned above a large landmass of my ...
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3answers
172 views
How would the weather act if you blocked sunlight?
Consider a large flat disc, at least two thousand miles in diameter. It is thin and has comparatively little weight or mass, but it is also opaque and does not let any light through.
This flat disc ...
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votes
10answers
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How can glass marbles naturally occur in a desert?
I had a dream that on my alien planet, there was a large desert that had naturally occurring glass marbles in the sand. My dream logic was that the sand was melted into glass and natural weathering ...
9
votes
4answers
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World of (nearly) identical snowflakes
In a lab at Caltech Ken Libbrecht has been simulating snowflake formation and under absurdly exact laboratory conditions, they have been able to create almost identical snowflakes.
Clearly, in the ...
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9answers
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Keeping an “hot eyeball planet” wet
Consider such a tidally locked planet:
Many issues with tidally locked worlds have been discussed, but I'm not clear on how the water cycle for an otherwise Earth-like tidally locked world, would be ...
2
votes
1answer
119 views
What's the climate consequences of a planet with these characteristics?
I'm designing a new planet, but I'm having some troubles figuring out the climate.
The planet's rotation axis is at a 45° angle relative to its orbital plane, and each rotation takes 24h.
The planet'...
6
votes
1answer
141 views
What set of circumstances are most likely to lead to a planet with a climate resembling the Great Plains?
Part of my story will be set on a planet where a culture similar to that of the Old West has arisen - cowboys, frontier towns, homesteaders, etc. In order to make this development more plausible, I ...
6
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1answer
187 views
Is it possible to have a planet with earth-like mass but double the atmospheric pressure?
I'm no scientist and my poor brain box is on its last legs; I was wondering if any of you smart beans out there would be able to help me figure this out? Here are the specs of my system;
Kereiol is a ...
12
votes
2answers
281 views
Thunderstorms, 24/7
There are a number of places in which cumulonimbus clouds - and therefore, thunderstorms - are likely to form, such as:
Cold fronts, where masses of cold air move into hot, moist air masses
Around ...
4
votes
1answer
120 views
Cold Weather Patterns
I’m working on a world with a mild but near constant winter. This weather pattern moves down the latitude and causes deep snows and some ice at worst in the mountains to heavy monsoons in tropic ...
5
votes
2answers
98 views
How would a supernaturally heated caldera bay affect the local climate?
A supernatural geological event occurred and created a huge caldera-like formation on the coast of a region similar to Scotland. Over time the caldera filled with water and became a bay surrounded by ...
4
votes
3answers
273 views
Planet with Gridlike Seas
An Earth analog had been modified by an advanced species to have saltwater seas in an interconnected grid across the planet's surface. The planet has no true oceans and only the large grid network of ...
6
votes
3answers
382 views
Are there semi plausible scenarios where Nuclear Winter could last a thousand years or trigger an ice age?
Trying to develop a fictional scenario with a 'believable' theory as to how a Nuclear War and resulting Nuclear Winter could turn into a millennial scale ice age. By 'believable', I mean that it ...
9
votes
4answers
426 views
Vertical cyclones in a rotating space habitat
A common, matter-efficient, science-fiction habitat is a hollow cylinder or ring in space that is spun to simulate the pull of gravity on its interior surface. While for most purposes this artificial ...
32
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4answers
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Is it possible for people to live in the eye of a permanent hypercane?
Wikipedia lists a potential for a hypercane which can have an eye of up to 190 miles in diameter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercane
Say there's an earthlike planet that for whatever reason has a ...
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9answers
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What would a Dragon have to exhale to cause rain?
In a fantasy world I've been working on Dragons are venerated by many for their ability to seemingly summon rain where ever they roam. It's common for the peasantry of the south to leave offerings of ...
6
votes
1answer
154 views
Effect of slow rotation on winds
Given a rotation rate comparable to Venus & axial tilt like Uranus (about 90deg), what should I expect for atmospheric winds? I anticipate a stratospheric wind only, dropping to the surface at or ...
4
votes
2answers
214 views
Snow on a low-gravity, high-pressure world
Disclaimer: I am not a meteorologist.
Snow forms when supercooled water droplets nucleate onto particles in the atmosphere. After forming, they grow further by both tumbling around within the cloud ...
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votes
2answers
56 views
Focusing solar irradiation to create equatorial conditions at the poles [closed]
As I understand it, the majority of thermal energy on Earth comes as a by-product of absorbing radiant solar energy. Since the equator gets hit by rays which are almost perpendicular to the surface of ...
9
votes
8answers
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Desert poles but arctic equators; trying to find out if specific way is possible
I'm trying to create a planet with a hot desert north and south pole but a cold equator. Is this possible? and if so how? And if it's heavily related to space how would night and day work on this ...
3
votes
2answers
105 views
What would the climate/environments be like on a planet covered in small crater lakes and seas? [closed]
Imagine an Earth-like planet with no major oceans, all the water has collected into circular craters from impacts that are no longer occurring. Let's say the planet is covered evenly with 50% water ...
19
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2answers
881 views
Climate or weather simulation - free tools
Are there any free living or discontinued tools that can simulate climate or weather?
BYOE and Monash are only online web climate simulation tools.
Some tools I tried:
ClimaSim is only free climate ...
10
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3answers
528 views
What adaptations would allow standard fantasy dwarves to survive in the desert?
Recently I was talking with a friend of mine on fantasy stuffens. I brought up that its interesting that dwarves are rarely in the desert and he immediately listed reasons why the dwarf build is bad ...
6
votes
1answer
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Can rocky hills similar to the Scottish highlands be located next to a bog?
I've written about these rocky hills with short grass, gravel, shrubs, and big boulders. At the bottom of one of the hills is a big bog. Basically I've designed some buildings to be sticking out of ...
4
votes
2answers
274 views
How to explain day is 10 times as bright but no warmer?
Set at the present day Earth, the daylight on average is ten times as bright as today, approximately 111,000 lux at noon for example and subject to geographic and the air quality etc. I am looking for ...
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2answers
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A hang glider, sudden unexpected lift to 25,000 feet altitude, what could do this?
This is the third in a series of 5 (at this point) questions. It's not relevant to this question, but for anyone who's curious this was the first, this the second.
Conditions for this question are:
...
2
votes
1answer
161 views
Meterology of double planets sharing an atmosphere
If two planets were tidally locked and shared an atmosphere, as described in this question, what would the weather patterns of the planets be like? What weather patterns would form, and could these ...
6
votes
4answers
351 views
Would storms on an ocean world harm the marine life?
On a habitable world completely covered in water, with no land above sea-level, there would presumably be storms of biblical proportions. Suppose this world has oceans so deep that the deeper layers ...
4
votes
2answers
118 views
How does steppenwolf planet generates typhoon?
In a distant future, a spaceship was investigating a gravitational anomaly somewhere within a chartered sector in the Andromeda galaxy. A disaster strikes and the spaceship was found marooned on a ...
2
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1answer
110 views
Climate and weather without obliquity and eccentricity?
Obliquity is the most important factor of seasons. Without axial tilt, eccentricity causes small temperature variations. What would climate and weather on Earth look like, if Earth doesn't have any ...
6
votes
4answers
233 views
How could it rain oil?
It’s 2019 in an alternate steampunk/dieselpunk universe. Population growth, dwindling resources, and the evil overlords have everyone cramped into big cities, toiling away in the hope of something ...
3
votes
1answer
116 views
Weather and climate during the next Ice Age
I have a short story series, it is set thousands of years in the future during the next ice age. Humanity and their governments reside along the equator and in parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
...
9
votes
1answer
169 views
Determining Planet rotation period that would allow for global Wind Cell
I'm trying to figure out how quickly a planet could rotate while also having a single air flow cell, such as Hadley cells, that would circle from hot pole to cold pole, etc. as in the case of Tidally ...
