This question already has an answer here:

There are a number of games who depict planets as one general climate such as Desert or Tundra for example. I know that games only do this to save time and money and obviously, this is not evident on Earth (but if conditions were like this surely this would be only in extreme circumstances). So I want to know whether it is possible to have a planet with just one climate and if so, how what circumstances need to take place before that can happen?


marked as duplicate by DaaaahWhoosh, Hohmannfan, James, Frostfyre, bilbo_pingouin Jun 28 '16 at 19:38


  • $\begingroup$ Not really since the circumstances needed to take place was never asked. $\endgroup$ – Mobal Jun 28 '16 at 17:06
  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to the site Mobal. Check out the help center if you have questions and feel free to join us in Worldbuilding Chat $\endgroup$ – James Jun 28 '16 at 17:27
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ I would note that the accepted answer of the linked question pretty well covers your questions, realistically it can happen for desert, polar and oceanic planets but if you are looking for a jungle or forest planet it just isn't going to be realistic. $\endgroup$ – James Jun 28 '16 at 17:31
  • $\begingroup$ @James Thank you very much for the warm welcome. I am looking for any general climates not really any specifics. Thank you though. $\endgroup$ – Mobal Jun 28 '16 at 17:54
  • $\begingroup$ Can you define what you mean by "any general climate", and how does that differ from the other question? And then edit that into your own question... $\endgroup$ – bilbo_pingouin Jun 28 '16 at 19:38

I think your choices are very, very cold or very, very hot :P

Even Pluto and Mercury probably have local climate variances if you squint hard enough though. Something like Europa is probably pretty homogenous under the ice, at least from our perspective (though I imagine the Europans prefer to live near the warm core away from the solid ice poles and the cracking surface ice :). The moon is geologically/tidally active so maintaining liquid water isn't dependent on external heat source.

Anything within the "goldilocks zone" of a star will have poles and an equator unless it has a very bizarre orbit or virtually no land features that could interrupt constant water or air flow to distribute heat evenly across the planet.

  • $\begingroup$ Just to add to this, it is possible to have global trends such as the ice age, where many of the planet's climates are pushed to one end of the scale. As you pointed out, however, there would still be variations across the globe. To have a planet lean towards one type of climate isn't too crazy (and has happened on Earth a number of times in both directions) but to have a planet consist of a single climate would take some serious extremes. $\endgroup$ – matt_Vera Jun 28 '16 at 17:36
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Yeah, really depends on what you consider a climate (are all forests one "climate"?). Desert is an easy one, but for a planet to be so dry as to be all arid desert even at the poles would probably mean it is unhabitable (even Arrakis, IIRC, had more hospitable areas in it's past so "one climate" may just mean "one climate RIGHT NOW"). $\endgroup$ – Jason K Jun 28 '16 at 18:15
