Worldbuilding help
Jul. 1st, 2011 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melannen posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
factfindingWorldbuilding help!
This is really basic worldbuilding - I am actually trying to put together a planet, here.
Here's the very rough draft map I'm using:
The map shows two continents, each running north-south, divided by a small sea; the continent on the right has a ridge of mountains down the center, sloping to substantial coastal plains. The continent on the left is nearly all high plateau, with a flattish central area ringed by even higher mountains, and very narrow coastal plains. The colors on the map each cover an altitude rise of ~3000 ft; the scale bars are [currently] about 100 miles each, but that is eminently fudgeable.(A no prize to anyone who can guess where I stole the basic landforms from.)
Here's what I know for sure about the planet: the surface (at least on these landmasses) is habitable by humans without any special technology or protections; the year/day cycle, the atmospheric composition, and the gravity are within 1/3 either way of Earth's. The planet supports a native ecosystem that is capable of keeping it in free oxygen and keeping nitrogen, water, cycles etc. going to make it habitable to Earth people.
In the area covered by my map, the temperatures range between, oh, 40° and 100° Fahrenheit. The high-altitude areas of the Leftmost landmass are fairly dry, with ecosystem and landforms similar to Earth's steppe or savannah, with cold nights, warm days, thin dry air, and lots of sunlight. The lower altitudes, particularly on the Rightmost continent, are more like Mediterranean-to-mild tropical: wetter than the High Plains, with fairly constant temperatures in the 60-90° F range. Nowhere on the map does it freeze with regularity, although there is the occasionally frosty night in the colder parts of the Plains.
I don't really care what the rest of the planet's like, and everything not mentioned above is completely undetermined, from moons to axial tilt.
Right now, I need to figure out what the seasons are.
What I'd like, ideally: Most of the high-altitude basin of the Leftmost continent has two, more-or-less predictable, rainy seasons: the 'Long Rain', which lasts about 1/4 of the year, and is characterized by daily but not too heavy rains; the 'Dry Spell' of about 1/8 of the year, in which things just barely start to dry out; and then the 'Great Rain', of about 1/8 of the year, characterized by long, violent storms with heavy rain. The other half of the year there is almost no rainfall, and other seasonal weather changes are minimal.
Rightmost continent also, I hope, has a rainy season/dry season climate cycle, which is milder than Leftmost's, and I'd prefer it only have one rainy season.
What I want help with:
Basically, does that seasonal pattern make any sense at all, given that map? And if so, what do I have to do to make it work, in terms of ocean and wind currents/axial tilt/latitude/etc.? And if not, what else could I change to make something kind of like it make sense?
And also: do you know of any good resources for someone with an intermediate, but rusty, education in climate and geosciences, to learn about how tropical and wet-season climates work, for worldbuilding purposes? I've been going through my old Earth Systems textbooks, but they have almost nothing on wet-season climates. ):
This is really basic worldbuilding - I am actually trying to put together a planet, here.
Here's the very rough draft map I'm using:
The map shows two continents, each running north-south, divided by a small sea; the continent on the right has a ridge of mountains down the center, sloping to substantial coastal plains. The continent on the left is nearly all high plateau, with a flattish central area ringed by even higher mountains, and very narrow coastal plains. The colors on the map each cover an altitude rise of ~3000 ft; the scale bars are [currently] about 100 miles each, but that is eminently fudgeable.(A no prize to anyone who can guess where I stole the basic landforms from.)
Here's what I know for sure about the planet: the surface (at least on these landmasses) is habitable by humans without any special technology or protections; the year/day cycle, the atmospheric composition, and the gravity are within 1/3 either way of Earth's. The planet supports a native ecosystem that is capable of keeping it in free oxygen and keeping nitrogen, water, cycles etc. going to make it habitable to Earth people.
In the area covered by my map, the temperatures range between, oh, 40° and 100° Fahrenheit. The high-altitude areas of the Leftmost landmass are fairly dry, with ecosystem and landforms similar to Earth's steppe or savannah, with cold nights, warm days, thin dry air, and lots of sunlight. The lower altitudes, particularly on the Rightmost continent, are more like Mediterranean-to-mild tropical: wetter than the High Plains, with fairly constant temperatures in the 60-90° F range. Nowhere on the map does it freeze with regularity, although there is the occasionally frosty night in the colder parts of the Plains.
I don't really care what the rest of the planet's like, and everything not mentioned above is completely undetermined, from moons to axial tilt.
Right now, I need to figure out what the seasons are.
What I'd like, ideally: Most of the high-altitude basin of the Leftmost continent has two, more-or-less predictable, rainy seasons: the 'Long Rain', which lasts about 1/4 of the year, and is characterized by daily but not too heavy rains; the 'Dry Spell' of about 1/8 of the year, in which things just barely start to dry out; and then the 'Great Rain', of about 1/8 of the year, characterized by long, violent storms with heavy rain. The other half of the year there is almost no rainfall, and other seasonal weather changes are minimal.
Rightmost continent also, I hope, has a rainy season/dry season climate cycle, which is milder than Leftmost's, and I'd prefer it only have one rainy season.
What I want help with:
Basically, does that seasonal pattern make any sense at all, given that map? And if so, what do I have to do to make it work, in terms of ocean and wind currents/axial tilt/latitude/etc.? And if not, what else could I change to make something kind of like it make sense?
And also: do you know of any good resources for someone with an intermediate, but rusty, education in climate and geosciences, to learn about how tropical and wet-season climates work, for worldbuilding purposes? I've been going through my old Earth Systems textbooks, but they have almost nothing on wet-season climates. ):
