For my fictitious alternate Earth, one of the most important things to consider is that any change in geography and geology can result in profound changes in environment and climate. I've been searching Google for any climate forums that don't focus on our current climate change crisis.
Do you know any climate-based forums on-line that don't focus on our current climate change crisis and allow hard science on fictional climatic patterns?
Besides Worldbuilding, which you know about of course, you might look at the Cartographers Guild. They have some climate development tutorials that might help you out. They are more about the maps then the science, however, and may or may not be inclined to answer individual climate situation questions.
The problem is what you are asking for is just not how climate science works. The entire Koppen system is based on years of measuring weather patterns and temperatures , and then seeing what category fits the measurements. There are generalities that can be made, by latitude, nearness to ocean, wind and ocean currents, ect., but these are still just correlations to the existing measured data.
What you keep asking for is the same problem the climate scientists are trying to grasp, and feed into supercomputer models to see just what we've done to this planet. If this changes, what happens to that?
If this changes, what happens to that? Its just not that simple. Global atmospheric pattern, wind based ocean currents, salinity and temperature based changes to ocean currents, Coriolis effects, ITCZ, monsoon patterns,plate tectonics, wind shadows, rainfall due to uplifting air, desert areas where the air falls, continentality, climate variations due to elevation changes, humidity, evaporation, air pressure..., the variables and affects just go on(and then change seasonally).
Instead of asking the same questions, what happens if I move this or raise that ask the questions to learn how all these things interact so you can judge for yourself what might happen if I move this or raise that. On that note I do recommend a series of free lectures from Yale that gives a good understanding of some of the science involved.
Sorry for the rant, but I've been trying to grasp all the same stuff, and the complexity does get overwhelming.
Do you know any climate-based forums on-line that don't focus on our current climate change crisis and allow hard science on fictional climatic patterns?
I wish there was one like that, but if you want quality information you need to reach knowledgeable people, and most of them don't have the time to sit around on these forums. They're too busy doing research.
For specifics, your best bet is the scientific literature, which is vast, but a little Google Scholar goes a long way. You'd be surprised how many PDFs are lying around, away from the journal paywall. If you have more specific queries (e.g. what is the impact of the closing of the Panama Isthmus on North Pacific overturning circulation?) that would help narrow down the search.
For a nice, undergraduate level textbook that does a nice job of presenting big picture climate changes over geologic time, I recommend "Earth's Climate: Past and Future" by William F Ruddiman.
