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The Climate of Middle-Earth

Posted by Soulskill on from the climate-science-everyone-can-get-behind dept.

sciencehabit writes "One does not simply model the climate of Mordor; unless, of course, you are the University of Bristol's Dan Lunt, who has created a climate simulation of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Using supercomputers and a model originally developed by the U.K. Met Office, his study compares Middle-earth's climate with those of our (modern) and the dinosaur's (Late Cretaceous) worlds. The Middle-earth model reveals that the Shire — home to the Hobbits — would enjoy weather much like England's East Midlands, with an average temperature of 7C and about 61 cm of rainfall each year. An epic journey to Mount Doom, however, would see a shift in climate, with the subtropical Mordor region being more like Los Angeles or western Texas." The full academic paper is available in English, Elvish, and Dwarfish.

14 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Orcish translation? by femtobyte · · Score: 4, Funny

    We need this translated into Orcish, too, so the professional global warming denialists can properly read and respond to it.

    1. Re:Orcish translation? by Dahamma · · Score: 1, Funny

      Oh come on, every knows Orcs an global warming denialists don't read!

  2. Yeah, but... by Type44Q · · Score: 1, Funny

    with an average temperature of 7C

    (Insert hick accent) Yeah, but what's that in degrees?

  3. Re:Mordor weather is like Los Angeles?? by Viol8 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Mordor is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume"

    So how's that different from LA?

  4. Re:Wait.... by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, but it is full of Orcs.

  5. Yes but... by Lije+Baley · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...what are we going to do about Middle-Earth warming?!?

    --
    Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
    1. Re:Yes but... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Funny

      But go not to the Elves for counsel, for they shall say both solar and oil.

  6. Re: Mordor weather is like Los Angeles?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not with ten thousand men could you model this... it is folly.

  7. Re:Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    No one. You may find this amazing and possibly even difficult to grasp, but free market economics isn't necessarily the prime motivator behind science.

    I hope this revelation hasn't been too much of a blow to your world view.

  8. Re:Mordor weather is like Los Angeles?? by kinkozmasta · · Score: 4, Funny

    The traffic in Mordor isn't quite as bad?

  9. Re: So how's that different from LA? by M.+Baranczak · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mordor has a much better public transit system.

  10. New Zealand by luckymutt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Couldn't they have saved a lot of time and just pulled up the data we have on New Zealand?

  11. emacs doesn't translate it but vi does by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So there.

    Commence battle

  12. Re:Science by meglon · · Score: 4, Funny

    There was a greater secret about dorvish...er...dwarvish.... it wasn't actually a language at all. Dwarves would simply scribble lines on things to make the other races think they were intelligent enough to have a language.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's