Abnormal Freezing Weather
I have an Earth-like planet that has no frozen poles. It is very similar to a Cretaceous Earth. Is there any sort of odd, yet reoccurring weather event, that could cause freezing air from the upper atmosphere to descend quickly to lower the temperature of several islands in a non-polar latitude down to freezing?
Edit: By freezing an Island, I mean allowing water to get cold enough to form ice on the island, resulting in a colder climate than surrounding areas.
Edit: My world has large oceans uninterrupted by any continents, with the world's only two terrestrial continents being at the poles and dominated by forests. This island is volcanic in nature, so having a higher elevation isn't unreasonable.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/135160. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1 answer
Like the comments already state several times, your whole idea is a long-shot. But given that, perhaps your planet can have some set of conditions that provide the Mother of All El Niño - La Niña cycles.
Here on this Earth, said cycle takes the form of periodic variations in the winds, currents, and temperature of the surface of the southern Pacific Ocean, which in turn influences weather patterns throughout most of the planet. This cycle is about seven years long, and the temperature variations are only about half a °C water temp, but still cause noticeable changes in precipitation and air temp across entire continents.
Our scientists are just beginning to hypothesize about the exact cause and mechanisms, leaving you possibly even more freedom in a fictional work to handwave.
For some reason, the axial tilt, the positions of land-masses, the contour of the ocean bottom, the orbits of its natural satellites, and presence of maedupium in the atmosphere, all conspire upon Thalassan-World to make a hundred-year long cycle with sudden shifts of +/-30°C. Just as an example.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/135295. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads