Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Would continental deserts appear at the equator of a planet?

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Flanders, Belgium
    Posts
    1,276

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Barlie View Post
    Edit: I have just one more question. Assuming no terrain blocks the wind, how far do you have to travel inland before the area is no longer climatically connected to the ocean?
    The group of climates not (or very weakly) influenced by ocean currents are called continental climates. In order to understand what these are, I suggest we first take a loot at the picture below.

    Attachment 48323

    As you can see continental climates only occur in cold and temperate regions. Sometimes they begin directly at the coast, sometimes they're hundreds of miles away from the sea. You also notice that, the more north you go, the closer the continental climate comes to the sea. The tempering, 'moisturizing' influence of the sea gets weaker. And the less influence you get, the more extreme the temperatures will be. In Siberia, temperatures can go as high as 90°F in summer and as low as -10°F in winter. The range in temperatures in sea climates is far smaller.

    But actually I don't think you can rule out the influence of the terrain: it's one of the strongest factors! Just like with deserts, mountain ranges decide how much of the ocean's influence you get. You can have a continental climate right next to the sea, as long as it's separated from it by a mountain range.

    But if you're asking about the maximum distance between the sea and the 'start' of a zone with a continental climate, I guess it's in the hundreds of miles, at least here on earth.
    Caenwyr Cartography


    Check out my portfolio!

  2. #2

    Default

    The attachment you posted seems to not be working. Just to make sure I understand, you're saying that the weather tempering effect of large bodies of water on the climates of their coasts increases as you approach the equator and decreases as you approach the poles? And yeah, I wouldn't rule out the effect of mountains and other terrain types. Just needed as simple a case as I could think of to get the general idea. Thanks again by the way. In the 3 posts you've made in this thread, I've gotten more useable information for my purposes than in a few of weeks of research.
    Last edited by Barlie; 09-24-2012 at 09:10 AM.

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •