Assigning Climate Regions || Worldbuilding Guide Series Part 7

Welcome to the next video in my worldbuilding guide series for creating an Earth-like planet! This video is on mapping climate regions base on the Koppen CLimate Classification system.
DISCLAIMER: If you are looking to create a fantasy world in a few hours, this guide is not for you. If you are looking for good value between time spent and realism in your fantasy world, this is probably not for you either. This guide goes way more in depth than most other worldbuilding guides to a level that is objectively not necessary. However, “necessary” is not the point here. If you want to understand WHY your world is the way it is and let your world come alive as you slowly mold it, then this guide is for you.
To already contradict my disclaimer, the reason I go to this level of detail in creating my fantasy worlds is not just because I enjoy it. Things like geography and climate have a huge impact on civilization. Knowing about the world around your people is the first part in understanding them.
Worldbuilding Guide Playlist: • Worldbuilding Guide
Worldbuilding Guide Vlog: www.madelinejameswrites.com/w...
Climate Region Blog Post: www.madelinejameswrites.com/b...
Major Resources can be found through the blog post.
00:00 Intro
00:30 Plan
00:47 Climate Classification Lesson
19:04 Cheat Sheet and Setting Up
21:54 Mapping Polar Regions
23:18 Mapping Temperate and Continental Regions
26:37 Mapping Tropical Regions
28:15 Mapping Arid Regions
29:33 Initial Map and Tweaks
32:50 Whats Next
----- LINKS -----
Website: www.madelinejameswrites.com/
Instagram: / author_mjames
Twitter: / author_mjames

[@Artifexian]

Great video! Keep up the great work, Madeline

[@madelinejameswrites]

Thank you!!! I really appreciate it! ☺️

[@John_Jack]

Madeline: "As you can see, this is a map of the world using the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system." Me (trying to act smart): "Ahh, yes. I left my copy at home."

[@madelinejameswrites]

😂😂😂

[@wraithwrecker_]

This series is absolutely triple S tier. I'm ecstatic to hear you have more planned for this series. This series is going to be totally indispensable as I continue the years long rewrite of a world in which I and a friend designed a now defunct ttrpg. We want to turn it into a campaign setting for DnD 5e, but the rewrite is proving to be a huge challenge (we've been rewriting for almost as long as it took us to write the damn thing in the first place... lol). Unfortunately, the continent shapes were set long before we thought of doing plate tectonics, but I'm definitely using the rest of this series to help me finish the rewrite. Last time I tried doing ocean currents, I ended up with climate zones that clashed drastically with the climate zones we previously imagined, but your process is more thorough/precise and yet still doable with paper (involves no simulation programs etc), so I'm gonna give this another whack when I have time. Thanks so much for this series!

[@madelinejameswrites]

I had a similar problem when I first started this process, I ended up tweaking the landforms wherever I could to TRY and get it closer but... tricky and didn't get it super close

[@madelinejameswrites]

Also thank you ☺️☺️

[@Margaret.Thatcher.]

I love your channel dude

[@madelinejameswrites]

Thank you!!!

[@StoryGirl83]

I appreciate the detail you put into this. It’ll be so useful once I start working on my own maps.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Thank you ☺️ good luck with your maps!

[@alienoverlordusa9178]

I am such a sucker for the Köppen-Geiger system, so happy you decided to work with it on your world! Thoroughly explained as well, which is wonderful for beginning map-makers and worldbuilders. A+ content!!!

[@madelinejameswrites]

Thank you!!!

[@idle_speculation]

I feel that we should also normalize using the Trewartha system, as it’s easier for beginners to get into and the middle latitudes are modified from Köppen to better resemble vegetation zoning.

[@madelinejameswrites]

@@idle_speculation oh I actually haven't looked into that one! I'll have to take a gander!

[@iagocasabiellgonzalez7807]

This week I'm preparing a Koppen climate Spreadsheet. I input Max Temperature, Min Temperature and Total Precipitation monthly lat-long arrays, add an altitude lat-long array, and the spreadsheet will output a Earth Koppen Climate abbreviations for each location (64 Latitude *128 Longitude). I also want to add some parameters to tweak the data around ocean currents, as ExoPlaSim doesn't take ocean currents into account, and prepare some non-earth like definitions for exoplanet climates, like if temperatures average above 50ºC etc... Let me know if you want the spreadsheet to crunch your data with all the math done properly. One observation I had is that Csa Mediterranean are very delicate Earth climates, not very frecuent in Habitable Exoplanet configurations. Great vid as always.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Ooh that's really intriguing! Does your calculation factor in aridity/evapotranspiration? As I'm sure you've realized, I am not good with the maths so yes, intrigued!

[@iagocasabiellgonzalez7807]

Yes, it does. Aridity conditions on the spreadsheet are based in Earth Koppen limits, but i could implement real humidity/evotranspiration data to set the cut for arid climates.

[@keeperoflenneth]

Just got here, binged this whole playlist, great content. I'm hooked. Time to start over and try to put it to practice.

[@Bevillia]

Great video. You're continuing to hit the nail on the head with the balance between detail and not requiring a major existing knowledge of the topic to get going. I'm very interested in the topics you mentioned in the upcoming videos. You're getting to the point where I'm going into the topics completely blind, since I'd not got to those in my own worldbuilding in any systemic way, so I await those eagerly.

[@madelinejameswrites]

I'm so glad! And hopefully these next few don't take me too long! ☺️ thank you

[@idle_speculation]

It might’ve been a good idea to do your map in a specific map projection so you can convert it into different projections and such.

[@madelinejameswrites]

With the last world I made for myself, I went in after the fact and drew the rough landmasses on a 3D globe simulator and exported maps of each main land area based on the most accurate projection, and then drew that area specifically copying everything over from my existing maps. It worked pretty well! I am not sure how I would start out like that in an analog format though... but this process is always evolving!

[@artyoz]

Just went through this entire series and I'm so glad I did! I've been in GPlates Hell for the last few years trying to get my world *just right*, but watching you doing such amazing work using entirely analog tools was really... freeing, I guess! Love this project, love your workflow, can't wait to see more!

[@madelinejameswrites]

Thank you so much!!! I struggle with GPlates anytime I try to use it 😅

[@yanickschmid765]

Great video!!! I’m excited for people and mineralogy

[@madelinejameswrites]

I'm glad!! Is there anything specific people -related you're looking forward to? I'm still outlining!

[@DarthCasus]

This is such a good video, much better than most others on KZbin that cover the same content. Thank you for taking the time to be so thorough!

[@nildam.bonilla5849]

These are so tought out, unlike how I created my "world map" 😅 and I haven't really tought much on the climate🙃 but I will enjoy your whole series when Im finally done with my Zero Draft so that I have a better idea of what climate should be where I'm doing my story and what I should expect to be climate wise through the long time my story is set in 🫠 I really need to figure that out😅❤

[@madelinejameswrites]

Sounds like a good plan ☺️

[@dalellll]

Yay i've been waiting for this! I was working on figuring it out myself in-between your last world-building video and this one and have been looking forward to your take on it. One thing I found helpful was arranging the Koppen climates in my key into separate columns for "Arid", "Fully Humid (including Tropical Rainforest)", "Dry Summer/Mediterranean" and "Dry Winter/Monsoon, tropical highland, & Savanna" (I put Savanna and Tropical Monsoon in the Dry Winter column, because i wanted to emphasise the way Savanna borders on the tropical highland climates (the Cw ones)), and then a separate column for Tundra, Glacial, and the three ultra-cold Siberian climates... when i started doing that, it started to make more sense intuitively for some reason. you can then look at the colours on the map and kind of "see" the monsoon and polar fronts etc washing back and forth. It also helped me spot some mistakes, because i could see immediately that a "Dry Winter" for example shouldn't be amongst a "Dry Summer" etc.

[@madelinejameswrites]

That's a very cool way to do that I hadn't even considered! I like it, less referencing back and forth. I do love how with the Koppen system you can really break it down into something that is intuitive and makes sense. And I agree with the colors! I have a pencil rack that has rows of little holes for each pencil and I have my colored pencils assigned to the climate regions and ordered in the rack for when I do these maps by hand!

[@dalellll]

Also whoever came up with the modern Koppen colours must have been an artistic genuis, it's amazing how you can kind of 'see' the moisture & temperatures intersecting if you stare at it for a bit

[@orioni]

Wow, you really have a big and detailed long-term plan for the next videos.

[@madelinejameswrites]

I just have so many ideas! 😅 and these are things I've been doing research on for my own worldbuilding too!

[@tillydavvers]

Me literally 7 hours later "ok, now i can finally draw in my deserts" but i first need to sleep.

[@ronniabati]

Will any of your next videos include where to put major rivers? It would be interesting to see a large river passing through an arid region (like the Nile), where it might a good spot for a Bronze Age civilization.

[@madelinejameswrites]

I will need to at least map the major ones soon! I'm not sure if it'll be a whole video or just a segment of one, but soon!

[@ProfBoggs]

Excellent video! Will you follow this video with one on biomes? That would seem to be the natural progression of your series. For that, you might take a gander at an introduction to biogeography or introduction to ecology textbook. They have the benefit of being a bit easier to associate with actual ecosystems, but usually mirror a climate zone. Lots of people get woozy-eyed with the Koeppen system labels, but find that calling a location a savannah or Mediterranean biome makes more sense intuitively.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Thank you! This seems to be a popular request so I've decided it will either be the next video or the one after! I have a more indepth biome-like video planned for the regional mapping stage, but that is too detailed for a global map. So I am going to use another system for the global map and go into more depth later!

[@Alcarinqu]

Great Video, thank you! This gives me inspiration to go over my climate map once more... (But there might be a chance i have to redo a lot of the map so i tend to put it off ;) )

[@madelinejameswrites]

I always tend to have to go back a few times too 😅 sometimes you don't realize the implications of just how big you made that mountain range....

[@CJLloyd]

I love this series! I love how you've broken everything down into manageable chunks, and your cheat sheets are fantastically helpful. It really is top tier stuff. However, I have met a problem. I have worked through my map four times, from step one to his one, refining each time. I am finding the same problem each time, so I can only imagine I'm doing something wrong: I am finding huge gaps in my map where there is no climate zones assigned, and I'm also finding major climate zones that just appear nowhere on my map at all. There are a lot of temperate and continental subdivisions that just don't show up, based on my temperature and aridity maps. My temperate and continental zones are tiny, my tropical zones are pretty small too. I fear these things might be connected. Any advice highly appreciated.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Thank you 😊 and would you be comfortable sharing pictures of your maps with me so I could look? There's a contact me on my website and just send a message and I can email you back so you have my email to send the pictures to. But yeah there are definitely some climate zones that, depending on your topography, might be nearly or entirely absent. If you look at earth, you'll find there are definitely some, especially in the temperate/Continental section that are only mildly present, and I think there are some classifications they don't even put on all the koppen maps because they don't realistically show up. That said, you should still have climate zones everywhere so I'm wondering if there's something missing or something very extreme on your map that I didn't account for. It's hard to say without seeing all your maps. Thank you for reaching out!

[@ajdogz5088]

Got two questions, but some context first: Due to some additions/mistakes i made with the temperature maps, I ended up with a few area's where it's colder in Northern Hemisphere summer than Northern Hemisphere winter, complicating things like tundra where i have an area of Cold summer but Mild winter. Should I: A. Consider the locally colder season a local winter despite the surrounding area being summer and vise versa. (making it a temperate climate instead of tundra) OR B. Keep the season consistent with the rest of the hemisphere and keep it tundra despite it becoming mild in winter. OR C. See about altering some of my additions/mistakes so they aren't as disruptive. I originally did the additions to compensate for some other stuff that I might have screwed up but didn't want to go back and fix at the time and thought I could easily justify later with magic due to the nature of my setting. The other thing I want to ask is about the wording of a part of the temperature section of your written blog. It was about warm/cold ocean currents and I'll post it below. "Our ocean currents map has cold and warm coasts marked already so these are the areas that we will be looking at for this step. You will also want to reference the appropriate wind currents map as well. Depending on the temperature of the currents, these will either increase or decrease coastal temperatures. They will only influence more mild temperatures, so warm currents will increase the temperature of areas from EXTREMELY COLD to WARM, while cold currents will decrease the temperature of areas from VERY HOT to MILD. These influences will extend inland by max 5 degrees, less if offshore winds." Does this mean area's including warm are increased a level or does it only reach a max of warm? Same with cold currents. Sorry if this is a lot.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Starting with the second question, coasts with warm currents that are warm or colder will get one step warmer (so warm becomes hot), and coasts with cold currents that are mild or warmer will get one step colder (so mild to cold I think is the step, etc). Does that make sense? As for your first question, I would look at a climate guide that is pattern based (so like Artifexian's earlier one that's a single video) and see what it would be in that area based on that system. I would probably suggest moving more in the direction of what that's telling you than leaving it. It doesn't sound like the effect you're mentioning is completely correct, so either fudging it in a more realistic difference or going back and tweaking the underlying stuff would probably be the best idea

[@ajdogz5088]

@madelinejameswrites thanks for the confirmation with question 2. I was already doing it like that but wasn't sure if it was correct or causing problems. As for the effect that was causing cold summers and mild winters, it pretty much only occurs on the coast, and I realize that some stuff doesn't make sense in hindsight. Gonna be working on fixing it for a while, but hopefully, it means I don't have tundra only a couple of degrees north of the tropics. Tbf, it is a colder world, so the bands have been altered to favor colder conditions, but I don't think Costal Tundra and what will likely be Mediterranean should be close to each other.

[@oddbirdMusic]

Beautiful video. I have mild audio processing issues - any chance that music could be maybe one or two notches lower in the future? Just enough for a more noticeable volume difference between it and your voice.

[@madelinejameswrites]

Oh absolutely! I was trying to make it barely audible in the background but it must have sounded quieter in my headphones than after compiling. I'll make a note to drop it even further than it sounds like it needs to be when I'm editing. Thank you so much for letting me know!

[@LordDany]

i have a small problem in my project its hard to me to asign anything remotely considering the large world scale cause i do not have the full landmass and world completely drawn because of it the only thing i can say is that wind currents come from the weast and at a point in year change a bit to go a bit more north , and its moderately hot in that landmass

[@LordDany]

hot enought to have rainforest in the areas that get rain

[@madelinejameswrites]

So you're trying to work backwards or the scale is too big?

[@LordDany]

i started with a small island cluster and the project grew in size with addition of landmasses and other ilands but i have yet to cover the entire of the landmasses so its hard to understand how and where the ones i have fit in the grand scheme of things

[@Laria-68]

And small ice cup the only mayer ice cup is in the south

[@Dryym]

Out of curiosity, How would you go about making a satellite map of your planet using this method? I have figured out my own way using Blender and some lookup textures that got provided to me which match up the temperature and humidity of an area with a colour. However this method only really works if you've done something like me and made a full on computer generation of the climate. I am curious what you'd do when everything is fully handpainted to be able to get a realistic view of the planet from space.

[@madelinejameswrites]

If you want satellite maps there is a tool and I'm trying to remember what it's called... but you can essentially draw on the globe for your plate boundaries, land boundaries etc and then export all your projections for different parts of the world for maps and then I THINK you can export those back in. I used it awhile back for a world where I cared about a few specific areas so I made a landmass map on the globe and then exported the best projections for the lat/longs I was working with, fleshed out all the mapping, and then put it back in. It might be the g projector NASA software that I used? I've also heard of a site called maptoglobe that might help!

[@Dryym]

@@madelinejameswrites I didn't so much mean the actual map projection side of things. Moreso the artistic side of painting realistic colours based on the climate zones and surrounding terrain.

[@madelinejameswrites]

@@Dryym OHHH I see! I think I will want to do that based on biomes or terrain regions which I haven't quite gotten to in the series. I need to do soil types and then I would probably do high level biome map/broad physio graphic regions and then color it based on that. So like if you know what areas are grasslands vs steppe shrublands vs desert vs marine forests etc. That would be a really pretty way to color in the map!

[@dalellll]

I experimented with this by using google earth and clipping some pictures of bits of Earth that matched up to the climate regions on my map (Blue Marble would probably have been a better thing to use than google earth in hindsight, because the imagery is more consistent), and made a layer for each climate zone and then put them all together. It was very slow and frustrating, and needed someone more talented than me. When i zoomed out and squinted a bit, even though it was an obvious collage, it looked kind of real. The most awkward bits were the boundaries between different coloured deserts, and the mountains. My rivers turned out okay but i spent a lot of time fiddling with finding rivers that looked the way i wanted and then reorienting them as needed, and it required a lot of attention to the scale. Someone who can paint could probably get some value out of it by using it to do a mockup before painting their own sattelite view.

[@madelinejameswrites]

@@dalellll that's so cool! I wish KZbin did video comments because it sounds really fun

[@dannynoir9058]

Is there a reason that you dont follow the degrees N and S requirements for your regions? E.g. your video says Arid (B) is 15-50deg but your map does not follow this. (The other regions seem to ignore the degs too)

[@dannynoir9058]

Also, what do you do with large areas of B regions that are semi-arid for both seasons. They qualify as Arid (B) but do not fall into any of the 4 subcategories

[@madelinejameswrites]

Those are more of a pattern we see on Earth than a hard and fast rule for other planets that may have different ranges. I think it's something good to keep in mind and not a hard and fast rule, although you can definitely adapt your ranges to match this more closely if it doesn't end up looking right. This process is definitely not perfect.

[@dannynoir9058]

@@madelinejameswrites Do you have any advice for B regions that are semi-arid for both seasons? This is a large amount of my B zones

[@madelinejameswrites]

@@dannynoir9058 I'd go with Steppe!

[@dannynoir9058]

@@madelinejameswrites Thanks. I am loving following along with these videos

[@aileenmarzanna]

Is the rotation of this planet retrograde? Because that might be the reason why you get stuck with so much aridity.

[@madelinejameswrites]

It's an Earth -like planet unfortunately

[@Laria-68]

Your planet is more dry the earth

[@madelinejameswrites]

Yeah, I have more desert/arid regions. I made a lot of choices with my landmasses that led to this.

[@Pseudo___]

which climate is winter that these politicians keep talking about

[@madelinejameswrites]

Ah yes. The season climate.