My world building project needs realism

[Hyrrow]

What isn't right yet?

[Gidde]

Your deserts look too far away from the equator, imho. Usually deserts are centered on the tropic lines (23 deg north or south of the equator). Your rain shadows in the more temperate areas would be more like dry-ish grasslands (like the great plains in the US) as opposed to deciduous forest outside the rain shadow (like Michigan, where I live). The actual deserts happen further south (and usually still in rain shadows), like the one Phoenix, AZ is in the middle of.

(Sorry for the US-centric explanation; I live here, so I'm more familiar with our climate than elsewhere.)

[Veldehar]

If there is a desert that bugs me most it is on Tarantia, that region probably gets a bunch of moisture, so you'd another explanation (easy enough) to really have it make sense. And as Gidde noted it is a bit north of the typical high pressure zone that aids in much desertification. But being north of it really isn't so much an issue as having another explanation and I just don't see one for this region based on the map. Storms should reach this locale rather easily.

What I am going to do with my world, amongst many other things, is to actually track its ITCZ and Jet Streams (very generally, obviously) to help determine likelihoods of climate. If you flip through some maps of of the ITCZ and jet streams as well as rainfall maps you will begin to get a feel for things, then throw in maps of mountain ranges to see their effects.

That being said, on your closer up river map, my gut says most rainfall would be on the southern side of those mountains as tropic moisture would certainly crash into those and dump on the south. The islands could begin to fall under the sway of the jet stream's moisture. This puts a major rain shadow on the east coast of Tarantia there especially after the stream has been over land that long, the air in that shadow should be moisture starved, because tropical moisture is either going to crash into those southern mountains or slide past to the larger Tarantia belt. Even if your ITCZ is pulled north in the northern summer the moisture is going to crash into those souther mountains before reaching that secluded area. Some thought could also go into whether that is a warm water or cold water region.

[Hyrrow]

Thanks to everyone. I think that sometimes it may seem I'm not listening to everything, but if that's the case it's purely because I don't understand 100%. I'm grateful for all feedback though, and I try to implement as much as possible.

Veldehar, I'd really like to see your world. :-)

Today I don't know if I can do much, I've been having a sinus headache since yesterday, quite painful.

[Veldehar]

I've an early WIP in the regional/world folder, but lack of time is my enemy right now, which I guess it almost always is, but more so recently, LOL.

[Veldehar]

Some very basic guidelines... 15-25 latitude you will find moist tropical climates, 20-35 dry climates, moist subtropical mid-latitude climate 30-50 degrees. Following poleward from there, you head into moist continental mid-latitude climates and polar climates. Here's a fun page that messes with my mind, making me want that kind of map for my world, LOL.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/gl...limate_max.htm

[octopod]

It looks to me like there should be an inland desert in Fellion. And you seem to have an inexplicably reversed arrow in your circulation patterns between Fellion and Azuria.

What's that little island east of Arya and why is it desert, rather than a climate like that of Sicily or Cyprus or something?

[jbgibson]

As an aside, since you seem to be doing well with the mechanics beneath your climate and topography, I'll just note that later, if you want an easier path to a beautiful map, your chosen inexpensive Ubuntu platform will support the extremely capable graphics app called the Gimp. The *free* capable app the Gimp :-). You may now return to your previously scheduled climatology, where I'll cheer from the sidelines :-).