1. Nobody can actually compute the climate map of a planet (which has a water cycle) given a detailed topograhical map, accurate orbital parameters, accurate data about the atmosphere and accurate data about solar irradiation.

2. Very much less so without a detailed topograhical map, accurate orbital parameters, accurate data about the atmosphere and accurate data about solar irradiation.

3. Your map appears sufficiently fine for the purposes of fiction, provided your story actually needs all that hot desert.

4. Because, in the real world, which is indeed an "Earth-like world", let us consider one large hot desert, the Sahara:

   • 14,000 years ago it was larger than it is today, and as dry than it is today.

   • Then, 12,000 years ago, subtle changes in the orbit of the Earth (see Milankovitch cycles for a gentle introduction) triggered a positive feed-back loop which resulted in our dreadful Sahara transforming into a green lush grassland teeming with animals and people, with patches of forests, great lakes and plentiful rivers, full of fish and hippos and crocodiles.

   • Then, 4,500 years ago, this happy state of affairs came to an end, and the deadly desert came back.

   • Overall, we have reason to believe that this is a regular oscillation with a period of nobody knows exactly how long, but somewhere between 10,000 and 50,000 years.

     This regular oscillation of the Sahara between a happy, wet, green phase and a grim, dry, desolate phase was very important for the spread of many animal and plant species, humans among them, from Africa to Eurasia. See Sahara pump theory.

5. Which means that if you made such maps of our very own Earth as it is today and as it was 10,000 years ago you will notice that Africa, which is indeed a "large tropical continent" had very very different climate zones. The same continent, on the same planet, in the same geological period, just 10,000 years apart.

6. In conclusion, go with your map if it fits the story. Do not hesitate to modify it if the story needs more desert, less desert, no desert, more forest, less forest and so on.

1. Nobody can actually compute the climate map of a planet (which has a water cycle) given a detailed topograhical map, accurate orbital parameters, accurate data about the atmosphere and accurate data about solar irradiation.

2. Very much less so without a detailed topograhical map, accurate orbital parameters, accurate data about the atmosphere and accurate data about solar irradiation.

3. Your map appears sufficiently fine for the purposes of fiction, provided your story actually needs all that hot desert.

4. Because, in the real world, which is indeed an "Earth-like world", let us consider one large hot desert, the Sahara:

   • 14,000 years ago it was larger than it is today, and as dry than it is today.

   • Then, 12,000 years ago, subtle changes in the orbit of the Earth (see Milankovitch cycles for a gentle introduction) triggered a positive feed-back loop which resulted in our dreadful Sahara transforming into a green lush grassland teeming with animals and people, with patches of forests, great lakes and plentiful rivers, full of fish and hippos and crocodiles.

   • Then, 4,500 years ago, this happy state of affairs came to an end, and the deadly desert came back.

   • Overall, we have reason to believe that this is a regular oscillation with a period of nobody knows exactly how long, but somewhere between 10,000 and 50,000 years.

     This regular oscillation of the Sahara between a happy, wet, green phase and a grim, dry, desolate phase was very important for the spread of many animal and plant species, humans among them, from Africa to Eurasia. See Sahara pump theory.

5. Which means that if you made such maps of our very own Earth as it is today and as it was 10,000 years ago you will notice that Africa, which is indeed a "large tropical continent" had very very different climate zones. The same continent, on the same planet, in the same geological period, just 10,000 years apart.

6. In conclusion, go with your map if it fits the story. Do not hesitate to modify it if the story needs more desert, less desert, no desert, more forest, less forest and so on.

^{Herding cattle in Tassili n'Ajjer, a rugged plateau right in the middle of the Sahara. Painting from pastoral period of the green happy days of what is now the world's largest hot desert. Reproduction available on Wikimedia, public domain.}