WIP (sort of tutorial to be) : Climates, applying Geoff's Cookbook at detail (some)

[Pixie]

So, there is a dramatic difference between the "rain pattern" in a region and the "available humidity". This is because of the effect of temperature on evaporation as discussed above.

So I used this key (already mentioned in Azelor's "sister thread")

Lower precipitation than evaporation (ARID seasons)
Very Hot + Moderate/Low/Dry
Hot + Low/Dry
Warm + Dry
Mild + Dry

Roughly equal precipitation to evaporation (SEMI-ARID seasons)
Very Hot + Wet
Hot + Moderate
Warm + Low
Mild + Low
Cold + Dry
Very Cold + Dry

Higher precipitation than evaporation (HUMID seasons)
All remaining combos

Palamb's humidity maps result in this (yellow is arid, lime-green is semi-arid and blue is humid):

- january

- july

This definitely changes things, but the process to work it out is still blurry in my head. So far, my only plan is a huge table, covering all possible combinations - not ideal.

[Azélor]

Something is wrong, because it's pretty dry compared to Africa or South America. They should have similar climates.

[Pixie]

I'll try two changes and share the result:

1. making coastal rains get further inland where possible, recalculate rain patterns and on from there

2. trying a little lower threshold for "arid" seasons and see how that works

Anyhow, as we discussed before, this particular continent has serious mountain ranges blocking nearly all westward winds coming from the ocean and that should have significant effects, so maybe it is just what it is.

[lishamatish]

Just wanted to pop in and say thank you so much for the tutorial
I thought maybe I was going crazy wanting to get into so much detail and poring over atlases and encyclopaedias was sending me a bit loopy so I really appreciate the information here!

[Naima]

Can I follow this tutorial or was it changed ?

[Azélor]

yes you can follow it but the last part, the step 7 is messed up because of me

[AesirKnight]

I'm just chiming in to say this is fantastic. I've been out of worldbuilding for a long time, but recently got the itch again, and have been wanting to make something realistic and detailed. This is great, thank you!

[J.Edward]

This is a great and informative thread. Pixie and Azelor - appreciate all this.
[must subscribe to this.]

[Naima]

I am having problems actually understanding what exactly I shoudl delete here :

1. baseline rain
All the layers will be colored with one color only. I use a not-too-bright blue, RGB:100.100.150. Brighter colors will make the end result hard to read.
For the baseline rain you just select one very big area (the whole map if you want) and bucket-fill it with this color. Then toggle off the layer and toggle on atmospheric features. Make a selection (using the lasso tool) around the high pressure centers (stretch it further east and west than the actual centers drawn before). Don't loose the selection, toggle off that layer and toggle on the dominant winds. Adding to the selection choose coasts where the wind direction is offshore and the areas behind mountains that winds cross (normally called the rain shadows of those mountains). Still, keep the selection. Toggle off the winds. Go back to the baseline rain layer and just press delete. Now your initial baseline rain has gaps big and small. Toggle it off again so you can clearly see the land. Make a selection encompassing all land that is far away from the coast or protected from coastal influence by mountains. Back to the baseline rain layer and delete that as well. The end result, for me, was this:

[Azélor]

I think it is :

layers
-atmospheric features : the high pressure centers (stretch it further east and west than the actual centers drawn before)
- dominant winds: coasts where the wind direction is offshore and the areas behind mountains that winds cross (normally called the rain shadows of those mountains)

delete these areas of the baseline rain layer