[WIP] Help with climates

[DanielHasenbos]

Hello everyone

I recently started working on a world map for the world in which you can find some of the maps I made. Now I did not really care about realism as it was just for fun and, though I will share my work on here, it is mostly just for myself. Still at some point I started to wonder where certain map features would make sense and tried figuring out some of the climates. To keep it easy I went with a roughly earth like planet. I found this, like many people on this forum before me, a very complicated and time consuming work and since I pretty much have no idea what I'm doing I thought I'd ask for your opinion and advice.

So here I have uploaded a map on which I have very roughly painted the climates as I figured they would be, though I am almost certain that there are lots of major errors to be found.
Please let me know what's right and wrong! (:

World map climates.jpg

-Dan

[Durakken]

My observances and reading on wiki about these things is that you do the following...

Dividing the world up into 6 (5) bands along the equator. Start at the equator and then every 30 degrees there is another band.
These bands roughly equate to (+ or - 0-30)Tropical, (+ or - 30-60)Temprate, and (+ or - 60-90)Arctic.

Decide which way your planet rotates.
The tropical bands go in the opposite direct to the rotation of the planet.
The other wind bands reverse the wind direction of the band before it...
So if you have the planet rotating right, then the tropical band will go left, the temprate will go right, the arctic will go left.

And the very last part is now figuring out the local climate zones...
Anywhere you have a mountain range is likely to have a jungle or forest on one side and desert on the other. This is because percipitation flows with the wind.
If you have a mountain in the tropical zone and the wind patterns are the same as above them on the left side of that mountain is going to be a forest and on the right a desert.
Plains exist between Jungles and deserts as percipitation re-accumulates.
That is to say lets say you have 2 mountain ranges on opposite sides on the continent and the ranges are slightly inland, you will have, starting from the left...
Forest > Mountain > Desert > Plains > Forest > Mountain > Desert

The extent of this has to do with the temprature of the area (those climate bands) and the amount of water in the area to begin with.
Lots of rivers/lakes = lots of trees (by mountains = jungles, by lakes = forests... generally speaking)
Medium amount of rivers/lakes = few trees but lots of grassland (savanah/plains/tundra)
No to little amount of river/lakes = small amount of vegitation which results in deserts

So while i don't know which way the wind blows on your map and thus can't tell you if it is "accurate" in that way. there is one huge stand out flaw... Climates almost never (if at all) cross mountains and on your map they do a lot.

[Azélor]

There is a problem with your terminology.

As starter, polar climates are too cold to have trees. Your probably referring to a tundra/subarctic unless it's very close to the poles.
Continental climates have nothing particular except larger temperature variation between the seasons compared to oceanic climates.
Subtropical/semi-arid: the fist describes a place and the other describes the aridity. It's 2 different things. Florida and Fujian have subtropical forests.
tropical/savanna : has the same problem as above. You can have different tropical climates. Most place are wet but some are dry. Consider spiting them between jungle and savanna.

You either need a clearer typology or you could also use a proper system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_classification

---

Now some critics:

The polar areas in the south is much closer to the pole and the north one. There is no reason for that, it should be much more moderate.
Continental climates tend to be more pronounced when the winds are blowing from inland. Almost half of your continental areas have winds blowing from oversea. That will temperate the climate because mid latitudes are usually affected by the Westerlies, as mentioned by Durakken. They do not need to be dry on the east coasts but the reason is sill not perfectly clear to me.

Also, take in consideration that the bands mentioned in the message above are perfect only with a flat planet with no/small temperature differences between the regions. With temperature differential, the air pressure change and the "bands" will bend, mix or dissapear form the map.

That is to say lets say you have 2 mountain ranges on opposite sides on the continent and the ranges are slightly inland, you will have, starting from the left...
Forest > Mountain > Desert > Plains > Forest > Mountain > Desert

In mid latitudes it's more like
Forest > Mountain > Desert > Desert > Desert > Mountain > Desert

It is that dry because the humidity is blocked by the first mountains chain. If the winds are still blowing toward the east, they are dry unless there is a source of water around. The region right before the mountains could have some vegetation like in Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan, due to the orographic lift.

[DanielHasenbos]

Thanks for the feedback! There seems to be a lot more to this than I thought when I started this. I'm not sure I really understand everything you guys say but I tried to use the feedback you gave to come up with a part of a new climate map. Please let me know if I'm on the right track and if this new map solved any problems, and what should still be changed!

World map climates.jpg

-Dan

[Pixie]

I could try to help out a little, but since Azelor is "on the boat", he will do a much better job than I can and my hobby time is very short on the moment, I can tell only this: good luck, good work and listen to the man..

Other than that, I can't help the joke: - the banana is over the map!

[Azélor]

The banana in the north suggests a tropical forest.

[Durakken]

Warm Moderate, Dry climate on the right continent's shape looks odd, like it should be too cimates...but i dunno...
The Savanah/desert climate on the left continent, I think seems off to me because of the ocean/coast goes inland into the desert which I'd think would change the climate on the right side.

Side note - Some of the problem to me is that whatever you're using to color the climates is producing a hard edge which throws the impression off that you'd not get in a final product because climates are mix together in a gradiant. So even though some of it looks odd it might be fine...

[Azélor]

On a more serious note, I don't think the center of the continent would be completely dry. It depends if the mountains are large enough to stop the moisture. Warm moderate dry is not far from the water bay in the southern part of it.
Actually, what does moderate means. Cold + moderate seems contradictory.

The east coast could be wet but I'm not sure. Dominant wind are blowing toward the sea normally and there is a mountains chain on the western side.

[DanielHasenbos]

So I decided that it would not make sense for me to keep on trying this at random anymore. I have to accept that this is going to take more than just some wild guesses at what might be right. I've read a bit more into climates and found this very helpful page: The Climate Cookbook (Google actually directed me back to this forum to a thread started somewhere back in 2012 ;P)

I also drew the map in photoshop for efficiency sake. I started working it out during the winter. So here's what I've got so far.

Prevailing winds
Hothachár Climate (1).JPG

High- and low-Pressure zones
Hothachár Climate (2).jpg

And then the trade winds. This is the part that I'm least certain of
Hothachár Climate (3) copy.jpg

Please let me know how this looks to you!

-Dan

EDIT: I only now realized that to direction of the wind is inverted in the south hemisphere so nevermind that!

[DanielHasenbos]

So I changed the trade winds in the southern hemisphere to blow in the right direction. This is the new map that I came up with, I hope it makes any sense ;p

Hothachár Climate (3) copy.jpg

-Dan