If the earth gradually stopped spinning, what would the changes look like in 20 years?

Let's assume that the earth has stopped spinning. To be clear, the earth did not end up being tidal locked with the sun, but instead, it would just stop rotating around its own axis. This should result in, for instance, one side being exposed to the sun for 6 months, then covered in darkness for another 6. The scientific reasons behind why that happened are not relevant, but in this scenario, within 20 years the world comes to a complete stand-still. What I'm curious to know is:

• What would be the immediate impact (and by immediate I mean within that 20 year time frame) on the weather and the landscape? I can imagine that there would be earthquakes, as well as storms due to the change in atmospheric pressure due to one side of the earth being cool for longer vs. the other being exposed to more heat. There's also the element of the ice caps melting, which would result on the rise of the sea level. But other than that, what other changes would occur?

• How drastic would the impact of the earth not moving be on the vegetation within 20 years? Clearly, plants would start to wither and die because the process of photosynthesis would be impaired by prolonged lack of light, yet would there be certain land species (perhaps large trees?) which might survive? If so, which ones?

• What would be the highest and the lowest temperature point that the earth would have at the peak of summer (when you would have uninterrupted daylight) vs. winter?

To narrow down the list of answers, let's limit the area of interest to the northern hemisphere, namely Europe.

posted over 8 years ago

Feidhelm‭

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