Climate Variance Based on Latitude

[Ozfer]

Hi. I am currently writing a fantasy novel, and ran into a slight problem. The main setting of the book is a harsh northern tundra, very similar to Alaska. It is north of a fairly temperate country, however, and there will be traveling between these locations (even further south is a somewhat dryer, hot climate).

I was hoping someone might have information on the reasonable minimum distance traveled (latitude) for one degree if average climate change.

I do realize that the surrounding landscape also has a large effect on temperature, but for now I am focusing on raw distances. For clarification, the planet my story take place on could be smaller if that helps explain the large disparity between short distances.

Thanks a lot, and sorry about my errors and formatting, as I am writing this from my phone.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Ozfer
I was hoping someone might have information on the reasonable minimum distance traveled (latitude) for one degree [of] average climate change.

As you've noted, this depends tremendously on the surrounding landscape and biomes involved. Everything from prevailing winds and axial tilt to elevation and montane rainshadows will affect the landforms, insolation and vegetative cover, all of which influence temperatures. ("Climate change" is also a term with very different connotations from what you mean here.)

Probably the simplest thing to do is choose two points in North America or Eurasia that match the beginning and end of your characters' journey, and work out the distance from there. If you're intent on shoehorning the landscape into a specific segment of time, that will likely end up involving a lot more work in the long run, with much less accuracy overall.

[Ozfer]

Thanks for the reply. And yeah, it sounds like you are probably right. I guess I better start looking at more maps!

[Everyl]

There are some places in the real world that have pretty extreme changes in average temperature over relatively small changes in latitude. Japan, for example, covers about the same range of latitudes as California, but average temperatures are far more variable in Japan as you travel north and south. The southern islands get a lot of their weather from warm ocean currents, while the north gets it from cold arctic currents. The result is that much of Hokkaido, at a latitude similar to Portland, Oregon, has six-month winters with snowfall routinely measured in meters; the northernmost tip of Japan actually has colder winters than Juneau, Alaska, despite being roughly 13 degrees farther south!

In short, if you want to make a big temperature change over a small latitude change, exposing your lands to tropical or arctic currents (as appropriate) will get you off to a good start.