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Earth has dreadful weather.
Sometimes winds rip the roofs off houses or pick up cars and drop them miles away. In some places it rains so hard you could almost drown by looking up at the sky. There are deserts where it gets hot enough to fry eggs on a rock . . . in other locales, it can be cold enough to freeze the tears on your eyelashes.

Is there someplace else we could go to get away from this wild Earth weather?

Weather Tour of the Solar System

The hottest day that we know of on Earth was July 10, 1913. On that day, Death Valley, California, reached 134º F. If that isn't hot enough for you, try Venus. The thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide on Venus turns it into a greenhouse (but without the happy plants). The atmosphere holds in the Sun's heat and never lets the planet cool off, even at night. Surface temperatures are almost 900º F-hot enough to melt lead!

As a vacation spot, Venus is definitely out.

So, where shall we go to cool off?

A Refreshing Mars Stop

How about Mars? It's farther from the Sun than Earth is, and the air is very thin. So it will be cool and refreshing like on a mountain top, right?

Wrong!

Yes, it's cool. The daytime, summer temperatures get only up to about 80º F. But at night, the temperature can drop to almost -200º F (that's 200º below zero!). It actually did get almost as cold as Mars once on Earth: Vostok, Antarctica, recorded a low of -129 º F on July 21, 1983. But on Mars, this sort of weather occurs all the time, swinging from warmest to coldest in one day!

Why such wild swings? The air (if you could call it that) on Mars is made mostly of carbon dioxide. But the air is so thin (less than 1/100th as thick as Earth's air) that the heat from the daytime Sun escapes into space at night. This thin air can still kick up a huge dust storm. The whole planet can be wrapped in clouds of fine Martian dust for weeks at a time. In calmer times, whirly winds stir up the fine soil, making "dust devils" that dance across the Martian surface.

So, Mars' weather isn't much fun either.

Skating Anyone?

If you're going to be cold anyway, you can at least go somewhere with great winter sporting opportunities. If you ice skate, how about Europa? Europa is one of the four largest moons of Jupiter. It's a little smaller than Earth's Moon. But it's covered in ice-smooth ice! It's gravity is only about 1/8th of Earth's, so imagine the height you could get on a triple axel! Unfortunately, with Europa temperatures around -328º F, you would be frozen hard as a rock in a nanosecond.

Brrrr! Our search for better weather in the solar system isn't looking promising.

A Long Hurricane Season

Perhaps you've always wondered what it would be like to be inside a hurricane. On Earth, the strongest ever recorded hurricane winds blew at around 200 miles per hour. Well, Jupiter's Great Red Spot would give you a whirlwind ride like you would never find on Earth. Counterclockwise winds of about 250 miles per hour blow clouds high in Jupiter's atmosphere into a beautiful, swirling pattern. The Red Spot could swallow up two whole Earths. This storm has been raging for at least 300 years!

But even 250 miles per hour is a gentle breeze compared to our next stop.

Breezy - But Beautiful!

Saturn is so beautiful from Earth, even through a small telescope, with its lovely rings and bands of clouds. Those clouds are moving at different speeds-of around 1,100 miles per hour! Some blow eastward, some blow westward. Oh, and it's cold on Saturn too, although not quite as cold as Europa. Then there's the small problem that, Like Jupiter, it's a gas giant, so there's no solid ground to stand upon.

Well, beauty isn't everything.

Land o' Lakes

Now Saturn's moon Titan, at first glance, looks promising. It's the second largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Titan is covered in thick, hazy clouds. So, does it rain on Titan? Let's dive under the clouds and see. Oh, look-lakes! Liquid lakes! Does that mean it's warm enough for water to be a liquid? Alas, no. The lakes are filled not with water, but with liquid methane or ethane.

We have methane here on Earth too, but as a gas-sometimes known as marsh gas. To "freeze" into a liquid and rain out of the clouds on Titan, the methane must be colder than -296.5º F. Oops! Clouds, rain, and pretty lakes are no guarantee of a friendly, Earth-like environment.

So let's keep going.

The Windiest

We'll just skip methane-blue Uranus, because it's another really windy gas giant. Same with Neptune, except even more X-treme! Neptune's winds are the fastest in the solar system, reaching 1,600 miles per hour! Neptune has been known to have giant, spinning storms that could swallow the whole Earth.

The Iciest

One of Neptune's moons, Triton, might be worth checking out. At least it's solid and it has an atmosphere-barely. And its atmosphere even has something in common with Earth's. It is mostly nitrogen. The only other body with a mostly nitrogen atmosphere is Saturn's moon Titan. Triton's unique ice volcanoes might make it a fascinating tourist stop. However, with a surface temperature of -391º F, this moon is one of the coldest objects in the solar system!

Let's Go Home!

Well, Earth is starting to look like an ideal vacation spot, in spite of its "wild weather." The most important thing in dealing with Earth's extremes is to be prepared.

Part of being prepared is knowing when bad weather is on the way. That's one of the main jobs of the GOES and the next generation of such satellites called the GOES-R series. GOES stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. There are two GOES satellites in geostationary orbit watching over North America. Their geostationary orbits are very high-22,300 miles high-right above the equator. As Earth turns on its axis, the satellites seem to hover over the same spot on Earth all the time. Really, the satellites are making one Earth orbit per day.

The GOES were developed by NASA, but are operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is also in charge of the National Weather Service. They let people know what kind of storms or other weather is coming their way.

GOES and the GOES-R series help with other things as well. They have instruments to study the sun, so we know when bad "space weather" is on the way too. These satellites are also part of a world-wide search and rescue system for hikers, planes, and boats when they are lost or in trouble.

NOAA also has the POES, which stands for Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites. These satellites are at a much lower altitude than the GOES, passing over the North and South Poles on every orbit, while earth rotates below. Thus the POES observe the whole planet. The information they collect is used for long-term weather forecasting and climate change studies.

No, Earth isn't the only planet with weather. But it's by far got the best.

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Earth has dreadful weather. Sometimes winds rip the roofs off houses or pick up cars and drop them miles away. In some places it rains so hard you could almost drown by looking up at the sky. There are deserts where it gets hot enough to fry eggs on a rock .

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Yes, Neptune does have seasons because Neptune has an irregular orbit around the sun. It also has a generous 28+ degree of axial tilt. Each season lasts 41 Earth years.

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Like Earth, Saturn's axis is tilted relative to the Sun's equator - 27-degrees on Saturn, compared to 23-degrees for Earth. And this tilt is very easy to see, because Saturn's rings extend out from its equator. There are times during its orbit when we see Saturn's rings fully extended, and other times when the rings are just a thin line, seen edge on.

You can also check out these cool telescopes that will help you see the beauty of planet Saturn.

You can also check out these cool telescopes that will help you see the beauty of planet Saturn.

Since Saturn takes 30 years to orbit the Sun, so it's seasons are much, much longer than Earth's. Each of the planet's hemispheres take turns soaking up radiation from the Sun, heating up. When the rings are fully facing the Sun, they can shade the planet, and further decrease the amount of energy received by the hemisphere experiencing winter.

And these seasons do have an impact on the planet's weather. Over the course of 20 years, scientists recorded that wind speeds around Saturn's equatorial regions decreased by about 40%. NASA's Voyager flybys in 1980-81 detected wind speeds of 1,700 km/h, while they were only going about 1,000 km/h in 2003.

Here's an article from Universe Today about how Saturn's weather changes over long periods, and the discovery of a cyclone at the planet's north pole.

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a beautiful image of Saturn's changing seasons, and an article from BBC about the planet's changing wind speeds.

We have recorded two episodes of Astronomy Cast just about Saturn. The first is Episode 59: Saturn, and the second is Episode 61: Saturn's Moons.

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Like Earth, Saturn's axis is tilted relative to the Sun's equator - 27-degrees on Saturn, compared to 23-degrees for Earth. And this tilt is very easy to see, because Saturn's rings extend out from its equator. There are times during its orbit when we see Saturn's rings fully extended, and other times when the rings ...

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Venus is similar to Earth in size, mass, density to Earth. In many ways it's Earth's twin planets. Of course its climate is completely different, with its hellish temperature and crushing atmospheric pressure. Oh, and don't forget about the clouds that rain sulfuric acid. But does Venus have seasons like Earth.

No.

Obviously, Venus doesn't have nice warm summers and cooler winters like Earth; in fact, the surface of Venus experiences no temperature variations at all. Everywhere you go in the entire planet, the temperature is the same average 460 °C. It doesn't matter if you're near the equator or near the poles. Whether you're on the day side or the night side, the temperatures don't change much from the global average of 460 °C.

Part of the reason is the fact that the axial tilt of Venus is only 2.7°. That means that the planet has very little difference between the angle of its axis during "summer" and "winter". Our axial tilt here on Earth is 23.4°, and that significant tilt means that the hemisphere pointed towards the Sun gets a lot more energy than the hemisphere pointed away.

And the other part of the reason why Venus doesn't experience any temperature variations is because of the thick atmosphere - 93 times more surface atmospheric pressure than we experience here on Earth. This carbon dioxide atmosphere traps the heat and distributes it around the planet.

Even though the planet rotates very slowly, with spots on the planet experiencing more than 50 days of night, the temperatures just don't fluctuate.

And so, this is why there are no seasons on Venus.

We have written many articles about Venus for Universe Today. Here's an article about Venus' wet, volcanic past, and here's an article about how Venus might have had continents and oceans in the ancient past.

Want more information on Venus? Here's a link to Hubblesite's News Releases about Venus, and here's a link to NASA's Solar System Exploration Guide on Venus.

We have recorded a whole episode of Astronomy Cast that's only about planet Venus. Listen to it here, Episode 50: Venus.

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Does Venus Have Seasons? - Universe Today

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caption] Venus is similar to Earth in size, mass, density to Earth. In many ways it's Earth's twin planets. Of course its climate is completely different, with its hellish temperature and crushing atmospheric pressure. Oh, and don't forget about the clouds that rain sulfuric acid. But does Venus have seasons like Earth.

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There are no seasons on Mercury.

Mercury has a very slight axial tilt to the plane of its orbit, about 2° compared to about 23.5° for Earth. So there would be extremely little seasonal change.

However, Mercury also has no real atmosphere. And most places on the surface experience 88 Earth days of searing heat followed by 88 Earth days of incredible cold. So there is no temperate zone to experience a yearly cycle of seasonal temperatures.

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What are the seasons on the planet Mercury - Answers

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There are no seasons on Mercury. Mercury has a very slight axial tilt to the plane of its orbit, about 2° compared to about 23.5° for Earth. So there would be extremely little seasonal change. However, Mercury also has no real atmosphere.

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"Does Mars have seasons?" is an easy question to answer. Yes, Mars has seasons. The planet experiences all four seasons that the Earth does, but, since the year is longer on the planet, the axial tilt is different, and Mars has a more eccentric orbit than Earth, the seasons are not the same length as each other or the same in each hemisphere. Why does Mars have seasons? Because, like Earth, its axis is tilted away from the Sun.

On Mars, in the northern hemisphere to be exact, spring is the longest season. The Martian year is nearly twice as long as an Earth year(1.88 years), the seasons last longer as well. Here is how a Martian year in the north breaks down: Spring...7 months, Summer...6 months, Fall...5.3 months, and Winter...just over 4 months. Even in the summer months it is very cold. Temperatures at the height of the season may not top -20 C. In the south the temperatures can be as much as 30 C warmer during the same season. The great fluctuations in temperature and the difference in warmth between hemispheres can cause huge dust storms. Some can affect just a small area, while others can cover the entire planet. The larger storms usually occur when the planet is near its aphelion(closest point to the Sun). When there are global dust storms there is no way for scientists to visualize the planet's surface.

Now that you have the answer to "does Mars have seasons?", you might wonder if the planet has always had the same climate. Most scientists doubt it has. Scientific evidence suggests that the planet has seen warmer and colder periods over its existence, much like Earth has. A radar instrument on the Mars Express has turned up water ice, a mineral mapping instrument has discovered chemicals formed in a wet environment, and its camera has picked out features on the surface formed by running water. The cameras also show a huge valley, Kasei Valles, that was probably carved by a gigantic glacier. Additional research has shown evidence of glaciers at varying latitudes. This would seem to indicate that the planet formerly had a different degree of axial tilt, which would have made for a much different environment and potential seasonal variations.

Mars does have seasons. They are not the same as the seasons the planet experienced millenia ago and may not be the same in the future. Earth has seen the same climate changes. Planetary evolution is ongoing, hopefully the spacecraft on and around the planet will tell us more, soon.

Here's an article describing Spirit surviving 1000 days on Mars, going through all the seasons. And another on the discovery of mid-latitude glaciers on Mars, evidence that the planet was much more tilted in the past.

Here is some great information from the Adler Planetarium about the Martian climate and seasons. And some more detailed information from Malin Space Science Systems.

Finally, if you'd like to learn more about Mars in general, we have done several podcast episodes about the Red Planet at Astronomy Cast. Episode 52: Mars, and Episode 91: The Search for Water on Mars.

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Does Mars Have Seasons? - Universe Today

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"Does Mars have seasons?" is an easy question to answer. Yes, Mars has seasons. The planet experiences all four seasons that the Earth does, but, since the year is longer on the planet, the axial tilt is different, and Mars has a more eccentric orbit than Earth, the seasons are not the same length as ...

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Does Jupiter have seasons? | How Things Fly

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Q: A: Actually, every planet has seasons! They vary depending on the tilt of the planet's axis, and its orbit around the sun. Our seasons on Earth come from the fact that we are tilted 23 degrees on our axis.

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Uranus, like Earth, has four seasons. But the seasons on Earth and Uranus are very different.

For starters, the length of Uranus' seasons are different from ours. It takes Earth 365 days to orbit around the sun, but it takes Uranus 84 Earth-years, more or less. So Uranus' year is 84 Earth-years along, and each season on Uranus lasts 21 earthly years.

Uranus, like Earth, has a nearly circular orbit, so it remains at the same distance from the sun throughout its long year. It's the planet's tilt that gives Uranus its seasons, just as Earth's seasons are caused by our world's tilt on its axis.

But the tilts of our planets are different. While Earth orbits nearly upright, Uranus is lying down nearly sideways with respect to its orbit around the sun.
EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!
Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees from the plane of its orbit around the sun. The axis of Uranus is tilted at an angle of 98 degrees, with respect to its orbit.

Earth has a midnight sun in summer at its poles, and a long polar night in winter. But those dark and bright times at Earth's poles affect a smaller part of our planet, and don't last nearly as long as they do on Uranus. For two 21-year seasons on Uranus - the winter-summer seasons - the poles of Uranus are pointed (more or less) either toward the sun, or away from it.

During Uranus' winter-summer season, the winter side of the planet never sees the sun. It doesn't see the sun for 21 long years. Meanwhile, the summer side of the planet has continuous daylight.

That's a long polar night, and a long midnight sun!

Now think about the other two seasons - spring and fall - on Uranus. At those seasons, Uranus is oriented in its orbit so that sunlight strikes its equatorial region. At those seasons, the length of a day on Uranus comes into play.

Uranus spins on its axis about every 17 hours, 14 minutes. So its day-night cycle lasts that long.

During the planet's spring and fall, a large percentage of the planet has day and night - a shift between daylight and darkness - again and again about every 17 hours. So, for much of the planet, where there had been continuous day or continuous night lasting decades on an earthly scale, now there's a fast change between day and night.

And that change causes dramatic shifts in the cloud pattern on Uranus, as earthly astronomers have now seen. Uranus has been visited by one spacecraft - the NASA spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1986. When Voyager 2 passed Uranus, this world was in its northern hemisphere summer, and Voyager saw Uranus as blue and featureless.

As the years have passed since Voyager 2's flyby of Uranus - as technologies for observing Uranus from Earth (or Earth-orbit) have become more powerful - and as Uranus moved in its 84-year orbit around the sun - we've seen the seasons on Uranus change.

In the years after the Voyager 2 flyby, the planet came out of the grip of its decades-long winter/summer season. Its northern hemisphere autumn equinox occurred in 2007; that's when the sun was shining above Uranus' equator. Sunlight had begun reaching some latitudes for the first time in years. The light and warmth in the atmosphere triggered gigantic storms comparable in size to North America (but with temperatures of -300 Fahrenheit/-184 Celsius), visible as bright spots in the planet's atmosphere.

Around that time, observers on Earth saw more clouds in the atmosphere of Uranus - and bands encircling the planet that had changed in size and brightness - as sunlight struck parts of the planet for the first time in decades. Plus, they saw a dark spot and more bright spots, which earthly observers were able to follow for years.

What more will we see, in the decades and years ahead, as Uranus moves toward the long winter/summer portion of its orbit once more?

Bottom line: Seasons on Uranus are determined by the planet's hugely sideways tilt on its axis.

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What are the seasons like on Uranus? | EarthSky.org

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Uranus, like Earth, has four seasons. But the seasons on Earth and Uranus are very different. For starters, the length of Uranus' seasons are different from ours. It takes Earth 365 days to orbit around the sun, but it takes Uranus 84 Earth-years, more or less.