Questions tagged [weather]
For questions related to the climate, temperature and precipitation that a world might experience. Compare [climate] and [seasons].
454
questions
3
votes
3answers
85 views
Possible real life applications for producing artificial aurora?
I'm writing a hard sci-fi novel and I am trying to create both metaphorical and literal scenic atmospheric ambiance by having artificial auroras being easy to produce in the night sky. Any clue as to ...
26
votes
12answers
6k views
Can a giant mountain be used as a wind shield?
In my story, a whole scientific mission will land on a desert planet whose temperature in the day reaches sixty degrees Celsius, they will land near the North Pole, specifically next to a Great ...
3
votes
1answer
138 views
Is it healthy to only drink rain water?
I read that it is perfectly fine to be drinking collected rain water as long as the air and the container are not polluted. However, would it be possible for a civilization to
survive and
live ...
2
votes
2answers
68 views
tidally locked Tropical Europa
Suppose there is a heat source at Lagrange Point 1 for Europa-Jupiter sends as much energy to Europa as the Sun does to Earth.
Assuming that this "artificial star" is completely sustainable ...
4
votes
2answers
96 views
What is the feasibility of a polar civilization using auroras for power?
Okay, so I’m working on making a setting for a TTRPG and am working on what to put on the North Pole area. I’m thinking a big ol’ Antartica-esc continent with a civilization of Nordic-like people that ...
6
votes
1answer
183 views
How high would a mountain have to be to have no snow on its summit?
On Earth (or another planet with an identical atmosphere), how high above sea level would a mountain have to rise so that its summit would no longer have any snow on it, not even temporary?
The ...
5
votes
3answers
791 views
What if all life disappeared from the earth?
What if all life (plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, and everything from the smallest cell to the largest whale) disappeared instantly?
And here I don't mean things related to the disappearance of ...
5
votes
3answers
149 views
How Do I Make Trappist-1g Habitable (in a fantasy setting)
This question is not about terraforming! (or atleast not technological terraforming)
I am writing a fantasy story set in the (real) Trappist-1 system. I am trying to faithfully keep most of the ...
6
votes
4answers
144 views
Flash Flooding on Titan?
From what I’ve researched, Saturn’s moon Titan is believed to have a methane cycle throughout its seasons. Particularly, during the winter season, methane rain falls, filling Titan’s lakes and rivers. ...
3
votes
1answer
74 views
Climate after the Ragnarok IMPACT
I am curious (with reasons) about what will happen after an asteroid (called Valhalla 2! Valhalla 1 had collided with the Moon!) collides with Earth.
Initially, Valhalla 2 is a major fragment that ...
2
votes
0answers
119 views
Weather for a dense-atmosphere water world
In this answer, I describe a low-density water world with a surface gravity of 1g and a surface atmospheric pressure of 20 ATM. The air temperature at the 1 ATM altitude (naively, assuming a ...
2
votes
0answers
49 views
Could the differences between day and night on this desert planet allow for strictly nocturnal condensation?
Here's the basic gist of this (debatably) habitable Earth-like desert planet:
Size: Same as Earth
Rotation: 30 hours (three extra hours of daylight followed by three extra hours of night)
Revolution:...
2
votes
2answers
74 views
Weather in a desert planet
Neviat, it is a desert planet with 81.5% of the Earth's atmospheric pressure and 80% of its gravity, it is generally dry but has many lakes and oases at its poles, the temperature across the latitudes ...
20
votes
17answers
7k views
How does a Game of Thrones-style hyperwinter occur?
“Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know
of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a
hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling ...
5
votes
1answer
107 views
What effect would a perpetual cold zone in the tropics have on the global climate?
In my fantasy world, there is a peninsula around the size of mexico almost entirely surrounded by mountains about the size of the himalayas which go directly into the ocean.
How they got there is ...
1
vote
1answer
103 views
What would the Climate effects of a Circum-Equatorial current be on a world with 0 degrees of axial tilt
The basics of my worlds oceanography is that there is one large ocean that covers one side of the world completely, and in-between the northern and southern continents on the other side of the world, ...
1
vote
1answer
74 views
How much electricity a cloud can generate?
Introduction
If lightning in the storm clouds is generated by the friction of ice crystals and water droplets, it would make sense that any type of cloud can generate static electricity, albeint in ...
3
votes
1answer
106 views
What would weather be like in an O'Neill Cylinder with windows?
I've got an O'Neill Cylinder that's virtually identical to Gerard O'Neill's original design, only scaled up a bit to allow for more surface area. The cylinder is divided into 6 sections, 3 windows and ...
4
votes
1answer
92 views
What would be the effects of a warm, tropical island in polar waters Part 2
This is a follow-up question to this question.
So, suppose that there were an island, with an average diameter of 90 miles, located within the arctic (or antarctic) circle. This island has a magical ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
What would the effects be of a warm, sunny tropical island located in polar waters?
So, suppose there exists an island (roughly the same size as Hawaii's big island) which is located well in the Arctic (or Antarctic) Circle, but magically has a tropical rainforest climate (warm ...
10
votes
3answers
924 views
Mars like world at a Venus like solar distance
I'm putting together a homebrew adventure for a space horror game (using the Aliens RPG ruleset) and I was thinking about what a world with Mars like mass and lack of volcanic activity and ozone layer ...
4
votes
1answer
89 views
Weather around an altered-gravity zone
Thousands of years ago, a wizard created a "downroad." This is an area of invisible magic in the shape of a cylinder 3m in diameter, 100km long, laid down east to west just above the ...
2
votes
3answers
203 views
Harvesting energy from rain as efficiently as possible
The goal is to engineer the most efficient way(s) to harvest energy from rainfall using moderately advanced technology. My idea was to use this as widespread power source for a race of people that ...
4
votes
2answers
162 views
What are the requirements for a scenario like the one depicted here? (supertall skyscrapers)
I have been very appreciative of the Netflix series Altered Carbon especially thanks to scenes such as those taking place in the location called Aerium.
For those who aren't in the know, the Aerium ...
15
votes
6answers
3k views
Are snow caps plausible for a mountain range in an extremely large desert?
I have a very large desert, approximately 15 000 km across from west to east (the north-south distance is around 4 000 km, although it's at a bit of an angle). The desert is bounded at one edge by a ...
7
votes
4answers
157 views
Analog to water in rain
While on earth it usually rains water, it usually isn't a sight to behold. To spice things up, I would like the rain to truly remind its colonists that they're on an alien world. However, this ...
0
votes
1answer
53 views
What design adaptions would a wind turbine require to operate in a perpetual hurricane?
Never mind why there's a perpetual hurricane. This is about extracting power from it.
Let's say that there's a perpetual hurricane that constantly "hovers" in one location - say, over ...
1
vote
1answer
91 views
How does one fight in a perpetual hurricane?
Never mind why there's a perpetual hurricane. This is about fighting in it.
I'm not sure what the terrain of the Sahara is after getting blasted with hurricane-force winds for 2 million years, but ...
4
votes
2answers
86 views
What would be some design features of an international research station built in a perpetual hurricane?
Never mind why there's a perpetual hurricane. This is about a building being built in it.
Let's say that there's a perpetual hurricane that constantly "hovers" in one location - say, over ...
11
votes
6answers
2k views
What would land vehicles designed to operate in a perpetual hurricane look like?
Never mind why there's a perpetual hurricane. This is about the vehicles going into and out of it.
Let's say that there's a perpetual hurricane that constantly "hovers" in one location - say,...
23
votes
12answers
7k views
Can I set fire to the rain?
A well-known pop song talks about setting fire to the rain, and I'm wondering if that's possible.
My first thought was that if you had oil droplets in the clouds, then those could be ignited as they ...
5
votes
1answer
69 views
Weather on a flat world illuminated by static luminaries
Consider a flat world illuminated, not by a sun following a daily trajectory overhead, but by luminaries in static locations, fixed at a finite distance above particular locations on the surface, ...
7
votes
4answers
344 views
Can I eliminate a dry continental high pressure spot inland by adding a huge body of water in the middle of it?
Can I eliminate a dry continental high pressure spot inland by adding a huge body of water in the middle of it? Like this sample picture:
The red arrows around the continent are warm ocean currents ...
19
votes
9answers
4k views
Does ice have to be on both poles?
If an Earth-like planet has ice, does the ice have to be on both poles? For example, could a planet have ice on its south pole but not on the north pole, year-round?
1
vote
1answer
103 views
Cooling the Indian subcontinent using tibet [closed]
The Indian subcontinent is at the same latitude as the Sahara desert, and if not for the Tibetan Plateau reversing the Haileys cell, would have the same enviornment. The plateau causes rain in the ...
1
vote
0answers
50 views
Maintaining an ice-free Northwest Passage with statites
Due to various territorial rearrangements, in 2060, the largest seaport in the United States is Churchill, Manitoba. A much reduced but still significant volume of shipping needs to reach the country ...
5
votes
1answer
181 views
A hurricane that stays in one location
Via what physics-related/weather-related mechanism could a hurricane hover in one place relative to the ground indefinitely?
What side-effects ((besides the obvious damage to ground structures/life ...
11
votes
10answers
4k views
Terraforming Antarctica: Is it possible to make it habitable without harming the Earth?
Let me explain what I mean by terraforming. Let's say we want Antarctica to be like Scandinavia or Finland. People from all over the Earth would colonise it and build the "United States of ...
1
vote
0answers
61 views
What would weather be like on a smaller Earth that has the same surface gravity?
First, let me state my current understanding of things (with the help of Universe Sandbox), just in case it is wrong somewhere and thus my question is wrong:
To have the same surface gravity as Earth'...
1
vote
2answers
89 views
Could the weather be created without magic?
Aclime is a strange planet. It is Earth-like, with seas and land, but for some reason, there's no weather: more specifically, a sort of supernatural force exist, that pushes against any flow, thus ...
3
votes
5answers
185 views
Are there any crops or agricultural practices well suited for a cool and very wet climate?
I am working on one particular region in a conworld that has a particularly cool, mild, and wet climate, similar to the west coasts of Southern Chile, New Zealand's South Island, or Washington state. ...
4
votes
1answer
393 views
What would the atmosphere of the Archaean Earth look like? (Before massive oxygenation)
I am designing an exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system that is remarkably like ancient Earth before photosynthetic life developed and proliferated oxygen into the air.
For Archaean Earth's ...
1
vote
0answers
67 views
How do storms scale with planet radius?
I'm trying to figure out how weather scales with planet size, keeping other factors constant. For a specific example, say a planet with the following characteristics:
Twice the radius of Earth.
...
3
votes
0answers
125 views
Will extreme cold damage hard drives? [closed]
At one point in Snowpiercer (the Netflix series)
to keep some hard drives warm (or room temperature) in a research outpost in the context of a snowy post-apocalyptic world where the average outside ...
5
votes
1answer
91 views
Creating fog over the ocean and large island using electricity and..?
Short version: This sea dragon can discharge and manipulate electricity. It wants to cover a large area of the ocean's surface in fog, how could it accomplish this? The creature is intelligent and has ...
3
votes
4answers
312 views
Water in the interior of a very large continent
Consider a world that is much larger than Earth, but has Earthlike conditions on the surface. (Including gravity = 1g, by some suitable unobtainium.) Clearly, the surface could be covered in a large ...
3
votes
1answer
105 views
Magic liquid that falls like rain, how will that affect the weather patterns and landscape? [closed]
So, my knowledge of weather patterns and geology is very limited, but I'm writing a book where magic is an abundant liquid substance that behaves similarly to water. I'm not sure exactly what it'll be ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
How quickly would an inch per hour of rain flood an enclosed 2x2 mile area?
In my setting, an apocalyptic supernatural event made the earth into a gridded globe of "squares" (more like columns) that are roughly 2x2 miles at sea level, getting larger going up and ...
2
votes
8answers
2k views
Why stackable magic spells are hardly used in battle despite being the most powerful kind?
A certain magic spell can cast its effect over an area, which is often known as area of effect spell. One such notable spell is chill spell, which slows target metabolism and movement. However, as ...
1
vote
3answers
132 views
Weird form of insulation
I asked before if large gas bags coming out of a creature could be a form of insulation. This avenue of question proved fruitless. But with it in mind, is there some natural form of insulation besides ...
