This is a good question....

[Wene]

My one friend and I were having a discussion the other day about how temperature affects the body and how it would possibly affect a zombie. He asked if since cold weather forces the human body to work double time to keep warm, through involuntary muscle contractions such as shivering to increased heart rate, would the cold in essence begin to slow down zombies. Since in theory they are dead and their hearts are not functioning(such that a head shot is the only way to kill them in most zombie scenarios). So I wanted to pose this question to the forum:

How do you think the cold would affect zombies, would it be a World War Z type of scenario where the majority of the human population moves away from the equator towards the poles of the earth, or do you think the cold would not affect them at all. Why do you think that?

[zcorvette]

I think the cold would slow them down... especially in freezing temps because they could somewhat freeze which slows them down plus slow obviously doesn't work to a zombie's advantage... On top of that what happens in the Summer? The extreme heat speeds up the decomposition process which would make them rot faster so they would basically end up losing their limbs because there would be no muscle to hold them together.

There are many factors that would cut a zombie apocalypse short.

I personally would move somewhere warm, preferably secluded yet in an open area (to see zombies better at a distance) and I would be near water because they would probably sink in water... and clearly obtaining a boat would be a major advantage.

I think that warm climates would be more effective than cold simply because they would tentatively decompose much faster, of course it would smell awful but a rotten smell is much better than being dead.

[rebecgood]

Cold- the zombies would begin to slow until they froze... unless the virus/bacteria what have you was able to rearrange DNA to create AFPs or ISPs...

Heat- they'd rot within the month. Let's presume SOMEHOW they can't; there would still be animals/insects that would (this is gross) eat them 'alive', so to speak.

[Wene]

Cold- the zombies would begin to slow until they froze... unless the virus/bacteria what have you was able to rearrange DNA to create AFPs or ISPs...

Heat- they'd rot within the month. Let's presume SOMEHOW they can't; there would still be animals/insects that would (this is gross) eat them 'alive', so to speak.

Then the animals may become infected such as the birds and dogs in Resident evil

[rebecgood]

Then the animals may become infected such as the birds and dogs in Resident evil

As far fetched as zombies may be, it's even more far fetched that animals could become zombies. Maybe some close human relatives like primates, but to have zombie dogs/horses/bunnies/whatever would be as silly as zombie trees. Ex.- Kitum cave, where a human contracted ebola but elephants/bats and other visitors were fine.

[ASnowman]

Both climates would have their truly damaging effects on zombies if it was possible.

Warmer climates would accelerate the decomposition of the body, since there is no flowing blood or cell repair on-going the internal decomposition due to bacteria from the body would be accelerated by the warmer climates. Heat and/or humidity would have a huge impact on a zombie pack.

Colder climates would slow down decomposition but would begin to freeze the water inside the human body, with no natural reaction of the body to fight cold weather the cell structures would become more and more rigid, zombies would in theory slow down until they froze stiff. The frozen cells would be significantly affected by freezer burn and variances in temperature (freeze...thaw) would cause significant cell damage that would decay the body.

Moral of the story is get to a safe location wherever you live and hunker down. The climate would do its thing...