There is a group of seven people, not counting the main character, who were sent into space. They witness the earth stop moving. Sand comes up in tsunamis, the pacific washes over the land, cities crumble. It went from 1,000 miles an hour to zero.

And they can no longer reach the base.

NOTE:
There wouldn't really be half desert, half tundra positions. The orbit is still going. There are still seasons and such, but they'd be extreme. Like, desert summers and tundra winters but mild fall and spring.

Humanity might migrate around the earth to keep temperate temperatures.