| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| xaeyruudh |
Posted - 06 Nov 2014 : 04:30:25
Do we have anything official about seasonal weather patterns, on any of Toril's oceans? Obviously weather can vary a lot with magic, particularly in the vicinity of Thay, but I'm looking for natural tendencies like the "hurricane season" of Florida... places and times where bad weather is just more common and port city populations therefore probably at their lowest.
I glanced through Pirates of the Fallen Stars and Sea of Fallen Stars, but I didn't see anything about a bad weather season. Closest I see is FR Adventures saying that the populations of Saerloon, Selgaunt, and Westgate are highest in summer, and Pirates of the Fallen Stars says Teziir has a relatively temperate summer.
And yes, I know that Earth comparisons only go so far, but "hurricane season" starts in May for the eastern Pacific and June for the Atlantic. The bit I know about climatology suggests that storms will be more powerful when it's warm. Currents are important though, and I dunno anything about Toril's currents. Still, I have to think that what storms arise naturally on the Sea of Fallen Stars and elsewhere will be worst when the combination of air and water is the warmest.
So it seems to me that sea travel should peak around Ches to Mirtul.
Thoughts?
Edit: Just occurred to me that more of the sailors might stay on land during the peak storm season. That would mean that bad weather in the summer lines up with the population notes in FRA. |
| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Cards77 |
Posted - 11 Nov 2014 : 02:13:13
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Cards77
quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer
I think Silver Marches listed information on weather. Maybe it mentioned the effects of the ocean on inland weather patterns? I'd check but my books are all in storage.
There is quite a large chapter on weather in the Silver Marches, however the weather tables themselves leave much to be desired. I would use the chapter as a guide line, and make your own tables upon which to roll using your knowledge of how weather works.
Systems come in, stay for a few days or longer, and then a new system pushes it onward, and patterns develop.
I understand weather is unpredictable but 2 feet of snow one day and 100 degrees the next is somewhat unrealistic.
We see rapid shifts during the winterish season in Florida, though not quite to those extremes... Just this past Saturday, it didn't even reach 60 during the day -- but was over 80, on Tuesday.
Right. Large swings in TEMPERATURE, especially at high elevations in the areas where I've lived (very remote) it not out of the ordinary.
I've also experienced snow every month of the year.
I've commonly seen temperatures swings of 30-40 degrees in 24 hours, but this is usually due to accelerated atmospheric cooling, and orthogrphic affects.
What IS NOT realistic is rolling a 98 on the table for one day where it snows 6 inches, then the next day rolling a 4 and having it be 85+ degrees.
Weather, even in extreme areas does not work that way. Orthographic winds bring in systems (either high or low) from one of the oceans, and those system persist for a time, until changes in water vapor and pressure off shore usher in a new system.
Patterns develop with the seasons. Not that they are all that predictable, but across years, definite seasonal patterns develop, with obvious rare occurrences, like extremes in temperature. But even then such things work for an amount of days (cold snaps, heat waves etc), not for ONE day, and then a 70 degree swing the next day.
I would use what you know of weather patterns in British Columbia and Alaska to best approximate what occurs in the Silver Marches. And as you work toward the Sword Coast, the weather would more approximate what we would see in coastal SW Alaska and BC.
Hope this helps.
I've also used this though it's pretty...normalized.
http://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/weather.shtml
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| Ayrik |
Posted - 09 Nov 2014 : 03:11:51
The Pacific West Coast (er, I mean The North) has unpredictable weather patterns, variable wind speeds in random directions, constant spurts of sun and rain, foggy mornings, strange humidities, wild barometers. Large pockets of circulating/suspended air and water blow across the ocean then slow down after making landfall, circulating in place for long times after hitting a barrier of mountains. Temps can drop dramatically if the wind comes from the Yukon or Alaska or across the Bering Sea, or they can rise dramatically if the winds follow the coastline up from Baja and California.
We dont ever get hurricanes, just lotsa windstorms and bucketloads of freezing water, some hailstones, random little snow flurries anytime between about September and May (although very rarely out of winter season). People round these parts know the secret is to just dress in *layers* which might be added or removed as the entirely unpredictable weather does 1d6 different things throughout the day. Modern meteorology only provides us with sweeping generalities like *its gonna rain a lot over the next week* ... only mid-winter and calm-heatwave summer weather patterns can be predicted with any confidence.
All the lore Ive read about the North, the Savage Frontier, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Silverymoon, Luskan, Mirabar, the Sword Coast, and Baldurs Gate tends to fit my expectations in terms of the weather and terrain landscape I have lived with in Vancouver, Seattle, Oregon, and Southern California. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 07 Nov 2014 : 13:02:06
Long Island as well - it has to do with being surrounded by water. Although the sea usually 'flattens' extreme changes (not as harsh as inland - the water keeps temperatures more stable), it also makes you highly susceptible to severe ocean weather.
So I've been outside in a T-shirt one day, and had a blizzard the next. I've seen it go from the 70's to the 40's in just 4 hours.
As for FR weather patterns - there is some information spread all over the place. The problem is, it behaves much like real world weather, until it meets a major magical distortion, like Evermeet or Thay, which throws everything else around out-of-sync.
Evermeet is very cool - the sea actually slowly spirals around it, like a giant drain. The further you get from the island, the less severe the effect, but it still manages to reach all the coastlines. Pretty neat, eh? Its almost as if it was plugging a giant hole to... somewhere. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 06 Nov 2014 : 18:17:23
quote:
Originally posted by Cards77
quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer
I think Silver Marches listed information on weather. Maybe it mentioned the effects of the ocean on inland weather patterns? I'd check but my books are all in storage.
There is quite a large chapter on weather in the Silver Marches, however the weather tables themselves leave much to be desired. I would use the chapter as a guide line, and make your own tables upon which to roll using your knowledge of how weather works.
Systems come in, stay for a few days or longer, and then a new system pushes it onward, and patterns develop.
I understand weather is unpredictable but 2 feet of snow one day and 100 degrees the next is somewhat unrealistic.
We see rapid shifts during the winterish season in Florida, though not quite to those extremes... Just this past Saturday, it didn't even reach 60 during the day -- but was over 80, on Tuesday. |
| Cards77 |
Posted - 06 Nov 2014 : 14:02:24
quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer
I think Silver Marches listed information on weather. Maybe it mentioned the effects of the ocean on inland weather patterns? I'd check but my books are all in storage.
There is quite a large chapter on weather in the Silver Marches, however the weather tables themselves leave much to be desired. I would use the chapter as a guide line, and make your own tables upon which to roll using your knowledge of how weather works.
Systems come in, stay for a few days or longer, and then a new system pushes it onward, and patterns develop.
I understand weather is unpredictable but 2 feet of snow one day and 100 degrees the next is somewhat unrealistic. |
| xaeyruudh |
Posted - 06 Nov 2014 : 06:20:36
Thanks Jeremy, I'll check Silver Marches when I can. And that reminds me that FR1 may have said something about seasonal weather too.
And books... in storage? I'd put my pants in storage before I would relinquish FR books.  |
| Jeremy Grenemyer |
Posted - 06 Nov 2014 : 05:51:51
I think Silver Marches listed information on weather. Maybe it mentioned the effects of the ocean on inland weather patterns? I'd check but my books are all in storage. |
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