And the dead will rise in the north.” Sounds like there could be some ancient belief in a connection between meteors and deep winters.Īccording to Westerosi lore, the Long Night was a winter that lasted a generation, with a darkness so complete that people never saw daylight. The cold breath of winter will freeze the seas. In Melisandre’s vision, “Darkness will fall heavy on the world.
As an omen, it has a variety of interpretations. We know of at least one non-planetary mass traveling relatively close to Westeros’s planet: the Red Comet. And the length of the winters would depend on the size of the meteorites. Asteroid impacts are rare, though, and the seasons on Game of Thrones do have some degree of predictability they come and go, even if they don’t do so regularly.īut what if the planet’s orbit around its sun cut through an asteroid belt? “If the planet got whacked by a giant meteorite every 10 years, it would then have winter for several years,” he says. “Asteroids can send a lot of dust up into the sky, which will cool the Earth for what could be multiple years,” Douglas explains. But the prevailing theory attributes this extinction to fallout from an asteroid impact. In the Song of Ice and Fire books, we learn only about the Valyrian eruptions-but, Griffith opines, “There’s a great big unknown planet out there that could have other regions with active volcanoes too.” METEORITES AND ASTEROIDSĪccording to Douglas, some believe that the aftermath of the Deccan Trap explosions is what actually killed the dinosaurs here on Earth. Spoiler alert: the following is pretty nerdy. And as evidenced by our last piece on the intersection of climate science and Game of Thrones, we think it’s fun, too. This is how climate scientists have fun-by advancing high-concept and ultimately meaningless thought experiments. Fortunately, their training has led them to develop several fascinating theories about how Westeros’s climate may have evolved.
Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Alaska, agrees. Thomas Douglas, an environmental chemist working on snow, ice, and permafrost characterization under the Department of Defense’s U.S. “As a scientist, I’m intrigued to come up with a biogeochemical climate explanation for what’s happening in Westeros,” Peter Griffith, who works in the field of carbon cycle and climate, says with delightful sincerity.
Fans who are also climate scientists, though, can’t stop hypothesizing. The continent’s seasons defy physics, lasting for years and changing without predictability-but, whatever, it’s a fantasy story. Most Game of Thrones fans are willing to suspend their disbelief when it comes to Westeros’s wonky weather.
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