# What would happen if the Moon's orbit shifted?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-moons-orbit-shifted/274810>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 15, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-moons-orbit-shifted/274810 "2004-11-15T03:25:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-moons-orbit-shifted/274810/21 "2004-11-21T11:48:12Z")

</div>

> [@prisoner6655321](#):
>
> No. Isn’t the gravitational pull from the moon responsible for the trade winds or something like that? I heard the reason Jupiter has bands in its atmosphere and storms that rage on for centuries is that the relative gravitational pull of its moons are less significant than ours. Of course the planet is a whole bunch bigger. But still, had we no moon I heard that our weather would be much more severe. In fact, it was said that the moon was one thing that made life on Earth possible, or at least liveable.

Winds are primarily due to the uneven heating of the planet. The trade winds are due to the circulation of air at the equator up and over to about 30 deg. north, where it sinks and flows back towards the equator. The coriolis effect causes the air to move towards the west. The westerlies rise at 60 degrees north, head toward 30 deg south and then move back towards 60 north. The coriolis effect moves these towards the east. Polar air rises at 60 deg north and sinks at the north pole.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-moons-orbit-shifted/274810.md?page=1)