Snow falls in Kuwait for 'first time ever'

But your argument has thus far been that temperature variance is a result of seasons. Venus has no temperature variance across its entire surface due to the absence of seasons. Why should Mercury be any different if seasons dictate temperature variance?

Because seasons are not the only source of temperature variations, and various dampening and accelerating factors also contribute to such things. This is why I wrote "Atmospheric effects are rarely linear, after all" above.

Completely. It is also the exact same reason why the poles are much colder than the equator, on Earth.

This hasn't been what you were saying, but I suppose it doesn't matter.

Moving on, you'll notice that Earth has a number of processes that counteract the formation of a thermal equilibrium, of which the most dramatic is the change of seasons. It's like taking a tub of water and sloshing it from side to side in a consistent rhythm for a while - waves develop, and water piling up against the tubs puts the water at the opposite end of the lower than when it started.

Consider tub of water which you fill with two high-flow faucets (one on each end) that you alternate between and which you empty via drains at the same rate. You'll wind up with a lot of waves in the tub, and the more severe the shift between the two faucets the bigger the waves will be. But waves - i.e. areas where the water is higher than the surroundings - mean that some parts of the water are now lower than when we started. Compare this to a tub that you fill everywhere at a constant (though unevenly distributed - the middle would get more water here) rate, and you see very few waves. Indeed, you see that the water line stays quite even despite the uneven fill, as the water equalizes quite quickly.

This leads to another interesting property, in fact. Having wildly different hot and cold areas can actually mean a planet cools much faster, as the rate at which an object cools by radiating heat is actually proportional to its temperature raised to the fourth power. Because of this, Venus's lack of seasons probably helps contribute to its extremely high temperatures. I'm not too sure how major the effect would be, however.

If there is little difference between the poles and the equator, tilting Venus won't change the temperature at the surface anywhere. The amount of sunlight barely affects the temperature at the surface on the planet.

This argument still does not hold water. There's little difference in very large part because Venus isn't tilted, as I've been saying. Claiming that this lack of difference means that tilting Venus would change nothing holds no water - it's begging the question.

Maybe this can explain it better than what I can.

If not facing the Sun for four months months produces a ~20 degree difference (the day on Venus is more than eight earth months) across the surface of the entire planet, then how much do you think the atmosphere would change if it was titled?

Again, I'm not saying that either of the points your link brings up isn't a factor at all. But that link does fail to mention that Venus's lack of an axial tilt make it far more susceptible to the formation of a thermal equilibrium across both latitudes and longitudes.

I'd like to remind you that this whole conversation got kicked off by you claiming the following:

Greenhouse gases are inversely proportionate to temperature variability.

Which at this point you still have yet to support. The effects of global warming are neither linear nor even primarily direct when looking at a difference of a few degrees. The bigger factor there isn't the temperature increase but the energy increase. But this still is an increase in temperature rather than a decrease in temperature variability.

/r/worldnews Thread Parent Link - middleeasteye.net