What would happen to seasonal weather on earth if the axial tilt changed?

Question

The earths axial tilt is 23.439 281 right now. I have looked into it a little and I understand that the angle the sun hits the earth is what creates the seasons, but if there was a shift in the angle of the earth to a more severe would it just shift the current weather pattern or would it create a different extreme change?

I am younger and not so scientific. I am doing this more for fun because I am writing a story for fun, but at the moment I am getting more into "world building" or "con worlding" for the world I am making so I want to see if I can put real seasons and weather patterns and jet streams and stuff into the world so that I can shape my geography and climates better.

Answer 1

If the axial tilt becomes more,the apparent north-south movement of the sun will increase and the sun has to cover more distance within a year.So,the duration of a  season over a place will bcome less.The maximum elevation angle during summer over the poles will increase increasing the average temperture of the summer and at the same time decreasing the average temperature of the winter.So extreme conditions may prevail over poles.

Answer 2

Well, the first answer was very detailed. I would like to add though, that an increased axial tilt, within limits, has been correlated with warmer overall temperatures globally. This is partly due to the imbalance of land and water distribution in the two hemispheres. Google Milankovitch Cycles and you'll see what I mean. The earth does oscillate between 21 and 24 degrees of tilt over several thousand years. We are heading towards 21 degrees and will hit it in 8000 years or so.

Answer 3

I do not have the answer for you.  But this has been studied.  I have seen it discussed on the History channel and Discovery.  I am not knowledgeable enough to explain it to you but information does exist on the subject.  

Run a search about the changing of the axial tilt and what would happen if the outside crust of the earth would shift.

Good luck in your research.

Answer 4

n increase in the inclination of the axis to, say, 26° would enlarge the (theoretical) tropical and polar zones, and compress the temperate zones. Only at the midlatitudes of 45° N and S would there be little noticeable change. The temperature range in continental interiors would probably change for the worse. Increased extremes of temperature in summer and winter would require a more vigorous atmospheric and oceanic circulation to transport the heat from the tropics to the poles, resulting in increased storminess, fierce winds, and general unpredictability of the weather. If the obliquity were to decrease to about 20°, the temperate zones would expand at the expense of the tropical and polar zones. Temperate flora and fauna would be able to extend their ranges north and south of the present limits. The variations between summer and winter insolation would be reduced, and the range of temperature in continental regions would be much more equable. The temperature gradient between the tropical and polar regions would be greatly reduced and less heat would need to be transferred across the temperate zone. Weather patterns would become more stable and predictable.

    With an axial tilt of 30°, the tropics are at 30° latitude and polar circles at 60° latitude, so that the tropics, temperate zone, and polar zone each cover 30° of latitude in each hemisphere. With a tilt of 45°, the tropics and polar circles are at 45° latitude, and the temperate zone disappears (though temperate conditions may still exist in certain regions). With a tilt of 60°, the tropics are at 60° latitude and the polar circles at 30° latitude, which means that latitudes between 30° and 60° are within both the tropics and the 'polar' zone! At higher tilts, the overlap between the two zones increases, until at 90° (and 270°) it reaches 90°, so that the whole earth lies in both the tropics and the 'polar' zones, resulting in seasonal variations of extreme intensity even at midlatitudes. With a tilt of 0°, on the other hand, the temperate zone would cover the entire earth, and day and night would everywhere be 12 hours long. This would be the ideal world for human habitation, as there would be no pronounced seasons, little heat flow, and the weather system would be reduced to only the gentler circulations of atmosphere and oceans resulting from the earth's rotation.

    An article in Astronomy magazine in 1992 attempted to describe the conditions that would prevail if the earth's axis was tilted at 90°.3 In spring and autumn all parts of the earth would still have daily cycles of daylight and darkness, but there would be extended periods of constant daylight in summer and constant darkness in winter. Twice a year every latitude would experience tropical heating as the sun passed directly overhead. At a latitude of about 34° N or S, the day-night cycle would last for a total of 7.5 months of the year, while for the other 4.5 months there would be constant day or constant night, coupled with harsh summers and winters. The lengths of these periods would vary at different latitudes.

        The seasonal heating cycle prevents the formation of permanent polar ice caps. The polar regions would experience the same tropical heating and high temperatures as the equatorial regions of old Earth. However, the polar regions in winter are exceptionally cold, so seasonal polar ice caps may form. Because the polar caps aren't permanent, the oceans – and the shorelines on the continents – are higher than those on old Earth.

    If seasonal polar ice caps form, the dominant force controlling weather may shift from jet streams which circle the Earth along lines of latitude to a pole-to-pole flow. This mimics the condensation flows seen on Mars, caused by the freezing and thawing of the Red Planet's polar caps. Thermal flows created by intense heating at one location and cooling at others may replace old Earth's trade winds and other east-west winds.

    New Earth residents probably also experience significant seasonal variations in the shoreline, depending on whether the thawing of one polar ice cap occurred at the same rate as freezing at the other pole. This change in sea level would occur on top of a change in the range of tides due to gravitational effects from the Moon and Sun. . . .

    Biological clocks, also called circadian rhythms, help animals and plants make the best use of their waking hours, driving urges to eat, sleep, seek shelter, or store food for the winter. . . . Most living things have biological clocks that run with cycles of between 23 and 25 hours. Earth's cycle of day and night constantly realigns these cycles to keep them in sync with the changing seasons. In contrast, during experiments in which no day-night change occurs in lighting, people resort to their natural biological clock of around 25 hours to regulate their actions, such as sleep cycles.

    But life on new Earth, where protracted periods of daylight and darkness exist, would have to adapt differently. Life-forms may depend exclusively upon their biological clocks to avoid the problem of the changing day-night cycle and the periods of prolonged daylight and darkness. Or perhaps the biological clocks would take over only during the periods of continuous daylight and darkness. When day and night cycles finally returned, the day-night cycle would control activities. (Would life-forms suffer from a massive dose of jet lag during the period when the day-night cycle takes over from the internal biological clock?) Perhaps life wouldn't have biological clocks at all. Or perhaps life-forms would have a complex set of rhythms that control activities during the periods of prolonged darkness and prolonged light and that adjust to changes in the day-night cycle. Clearly, whatever dominates the biological rhythms, social and emotional aspects of humans would evolve differently on new Earth.