The Weird Seasons of Westeros

The climate and geography of Westeros resembles much of real life on Earth, however its seasons do not. Some seasons last a few short years, others a decade of darkness. What causes this? Some say an extreme axial tilt, or a wobbly axis. Or is it just inexplicable magic? Let's find out.

Timestamps:

0:00-0:39 Intro
0:39-7:36 Climate of Each Kingdom
7:36-13:22 Science of Westeros Seasons
13:22-15:08 Grand Theme of Climate Change
15:08-15:28 Outro

[sleemo]

“The taste of their food and the faces of their women made the Ironborn the best sailors in Westeros.” -Crusader Chris

[Levacque]

The fact that GRRM has written sci-fi for decades indicates that if he wanted it, there would be a science fiction explanation. He probably ruled out any realistic astronomical explanation while writing AGoT, because his sci-fi is not surface level - there's hard science in the concepts.

[Jonathan]

The way I interpreted it, they have regular seasons. With the regular "winter" they call summer snows up north. They even have annual storm season in the narrow sea, so I believe they have regular yearly seasons like we do. It's just that they have brutal winters every decade or so, give or take (irregular) and it's reoccuring enough that they know to expect it, thus considering it "True winter", but it could actually be mini ice ages, given its description, and more than likely magical in nature.

[Depressedinosaur]

I’m curious how animals and plants adapted to the irregular weather cycles of Westeros (and other places in the world of Asoiaf) and if a scientific explanation can be given to explain it, or is it also due to magic.

[the_demiurg]

My theory before discovering that there was a magic related explanation was: the sun Planetos revolves around is some kind of variable star and it has random unpredictable variation in luminosity and energy output, so that it causes those harsh variations in temperature leading to long summers, brief summers, bad winters, etc...that would have been the most reasonable scientific explanation to me. No need to take axial tilt or wobbling of the axis into account.

[NTLuck]

I read somewhere that GRRM wanted Planetos (the planet where the books are set) to be three times as big as Earth but his editor convinced him that's a bad idea. Instead he made the planet to be a third larger than Earth. I wonder if that would affect the days of the year? Also, its never explained how many days are in a moon or even in a year. For all we know, a year in Westeros could be 420 days or so which would explain the prevalent child marriages occurring in Westerosi history like Daemon Blackfyre who got married at 12 and had 5 or 6 children before his death. If he was 12 years old and a year in Westeros is 420 days that would make him 14 in our own years

[ahmadsultan]

My theory is the others causing the irregularities by causing magical mini ice ages but they have limits and require time to build their power and that what causes the long summer in the start of the books it was because the others were trying to conserve their power for the long night maybe if the humans managed to kill the others the season will return to normal

[phnompenhandy]

Glad I found you. This is good - I'll watch your other ASOIAF videos.

[hitmannik]

I roughly knew most of this but it's always good to watch an entertaining video about it, great job

[AjaxLefeuf]

I always assumed the planet had a very slight, stable tilt, and that it was variation in the star that caused the long weird seasons.

[captainlyrae]

10:50 Vega isn't actually the star pointing north in our world, though it is a very interesting star. (The second brightest star in the sky after Sirius). The star that points north is called Polaris and is located in the ursa minor constellation.

[whoischristopherwayne]

Earth's North Star is Polaris, not Vega.

[alfoakes]

Recently found your channel and wanted to say thank you. Fantastic and well-informed content! Hope you get the recognition you deserve.

[gawkthimm]

my fav explanation for the seasons is; an unstable sun that itself wobbles and fluctuates slowly between; just enough energy output for a stable normal climate and not enough... so over time, if it werent for "magic" the sun would eventually dim and cause a new permanent ice age...

[mattmorales]

Can’t believe I’ve found this channel so early. The production and quality of content already feels closer to somebody with tens of thousands of subs. I’m sure you’ll be there soon enough!

[CMVBrielman]

My theory: The Arm of Dorne was broken by the Children of the Forest in order to allow the waters of the Shivering Sea to be warmed by the Summer Sea. Before then, the Others and the Long Night probably froze the entire Shivering Sea.

[ohmygordd]

This deserves wayy more likes. Cheers man :)

[Melkimund]

For all that is holy, Keep. It. Up. I'm so stoked to have seen you from the start! (Of this series, damn I have some catching up to do)

[brunocaf]

There could also be some more complex climatic phenomena like we have for example El Niño or La Niña in real life, which could explain this sort of irregularity in the seasons as they are perceived by the meisters.

[OnASeasideMission]

Working out an astronomical climatic model for a world that has fire breathing dragons makes the physics of Star Trek sound sensible.