Weather Systems in Skyrim - Elder Scrolls: Leftover Lore

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Have you ever asked yourself, "Why isn't there snow in Solitude?"
This video attempts to answer that question using Skyrim's mechanical evidence, observing weather/climate systems in Tamriel, and some leftover lore on climates and "The Towers".
0:00 - Intro
0:28 - Mountain Shadow Effect
1:21 - Wind on Earth & Nirn
4:28 - Conditions for a warm Solitude
6:22 - The Towers
7:02 - Ingame Contradictions
Reddit Post Accompaniment:
/ the_complete_guide_to_...
LeftoverPat Argonian made by LizardBusiness
/ lizardbusiness
Solitude, as the capital of Skyrim, gets surprisingly no snow as a possible weather. This could be due to a number of factors that we'll explore in this video, but namely stems from the mountain shadow effect. Why? Because in order for onshore Arctic precipitation to exist, it must come from warmer climates... such as Hammerfell, or Yokuda. Since a mountain blocks this precipitation, most of the moisture/snow hitting Skyrim's NW coast gathers in the mountains behind Solitude without ever making it to the other side. The rest of it makes its way around Solitude's peninsula, missing the city, and continuing on through the rest of Skyrim. This same angle of attack can be seen with Solstheim's coldest part being at its most NW point. I believe that these points are no accident.
Further, weather coming from the other direction to Solitude (from Atmora/N Morrowind), is certainly colder, but drier and unlikely to produce proper precipitation strong enough to push towards Solitude (warm fronts typically prevail over cold). Even if snowier conditions did reach Solitude from the NE, we have evidence in game that the river flowing out of Solitude is much warmer than normal rivers. This will absolutely affect the temperature of Ocean Currents, which affects weather from the North.
There are two major points along the river's journey to Solitude where we see "steam". A couple river sources near warmer Whiterun, and the docks of Solitude itself. It's probably not actually boiling water, but a common phenomenon that happens when water is even just a little warmer than outside colder air. Unless you believe in the Throat of the World/Whiterun Supervolcano theory, it's probably this. Which can manipulate the temperature of river runoff, the estuaries, ergo nerby ocean temp, ergo weather.
Tower Lore can offer us a fun fantasy-like reason to believe that the capital of Skyrim might have been "designed" to be devoid of snow. But lore on "The Towers" is shrouded too much in speculation... even the big sources we have are explicitly listed as theoretical. I would welcome a contradiction to this from a lorebeard, though. At the end of the day, it IS magical world, and in the games alone we've seen a number of weather alterations from magic.
It's also important to make the point that the game is probably in perma-summer mode, because Skyrim starts @ 17th Last Seed (AKA mid-August). If the developers implemented seasons, we might see Solitude with snow around Evening Star (December).
Wind direction in Skyrim has some mechanical evidence, too. But it's because rain/blizzards go towards the East. Always. Unless you input a weather with console command, it'll blow NNE, until you open the map or something, and it'll go back to blowing East.
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All map animation, and Skyrim video footage by me (except "Bethesda's 2011 Game Jam" for Seasonal Foliage).
Album of some of my map anims: imgur.com/a/FqLS8Vb
All else not mine, especially these amazing maps:
AMAZING Earth Wind/Current Live Map
earth.nullschool.net
SKYRIM INTERACTIVE MAP
UESP.net
SKYRIM TEXTURED TOPOGRAPHIC
Rocketsoup
TOPOGRAPHIC MAP of Skyrim
T Cook
www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods...
SHADED RELIEF MAP of SKYRIM
Timothy Cook
SIMPLE CLIMATE MAP
Lady Nerevar
TAMRIEL CLIMATE WITH OCEAN CURRENTS
u/Zantanderr
TAMRIEL 4E201 (Green)
Lady Nerevar
HANDMADE LEATHER MAP
u/CaveGeekArt
TAMRIEL RELIEF MAP
James Nalepa
----------------------
Music in order:
-Redguard Adventures Ingame Theme 2
-A Winter's Tale [Skyrim]
-The Bannered Mare [Skyrim]
-Out of the Cold [Skyrim]
-The Black Nag/Childsgrove
-At the Summertime Feast [Adrian von Ziegler]
-The City Gates [Skyrim]
-Morrowind Theme
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Thank you so much for watching! Please leave a question, comment, or feedback on how I might make the next one even better!
As always, if I've left you uncredited by mistake, please don't hesitate to contact me so I can add it to this list.

[@solitudeguard6261]

That's my city! Lol

[@hognigk96]

You imperial bastard!

[@RoxoCara]

@Shashwat Shridhar Justice!

[@theysaidimasian9766]

So, how's your guard duty? I hear your cousin killed a dragon last month

[@monkeyboyk7651]

Hail Sithis

[@headphoneshq6032]

@Shashwat Shridhar Damn rebels...

[@Marine_Dynamite]

Because there is one crazy guy that keep shouting clear skies everyday

[@evervirescent]

free my homie he just wants to see the aurora

[@markanxrath1369]

I laughed way too hard at this

[@nondescripthandle212]

So basically saying snow, snow, go away, come back another day

[@TG-vt7ue]

Local "dragon" man defeats snow clouds with loud shouts, creates dry tundra in Solitude

[@theknitby]

Sometimes, in those cold winter days, if you listen closely you can hear that echoing sound of "LOK, VAH KOOR!" throughout the winds of Skyrim.

[@rubenlarochelle1881]

I never imagined TES devlopers actually studied currents to determine climate, considering they didn't implement seasons...

[@redforest9269]

Maybe Nirn has a 0-degree axial tilt?

[@tylerbennett4488]

Come to think of it, it doesn’t make much sense. At the southern tip you have just normal forest, not even crazy high precipitation rainforest, and then halfway up you have desert. If you assume this is the equator and 30 degrees north, I guess it makes sense, except oh Cyrodiil is on the same latitude is Hammerfell but is most definitely not a desert. Then a bit higher you have snow, which does seem to check out.

[@alendonvaldor5808]

@@tylerbennett4488 Cyrodill is a special case however. Considering it was literally terraformed from a rainforest.

[@wisemankugelmemicus1701]

@@alendonvaldor5808 I think that's just a misinterpretation of Cyrodiil's geography. It doesn't make sense for a country between a colder, Scandinavian-esque country, and two warmer countries covered in swaths of rainforest and desert. Cyrodiil's more temperate environment actually makes sense when you think about it for more than 3 seconds.

[@TheDoctorfat]

They originally were gonna implement seasons, or at least yearly snow, but it got cut partway through developement, you can see it in action in a video of the Bethesda Gamejame

[@cassielee7272]

I always wondered why Solitude was so fair weathered when other northern holds were so covered in snow. Amazing content!

[@draconian_dragons6588]

I assumed it was the planet being round tbh

[@matthewbibby8921]

@@draconian_dragons6588 … Actually that’s a good point - IS Nairn even a planet? The sun and stars aren’t actually… Well, stars at all, but instead just light seeping through from aetherius. The moon is supposedly the remains of Lorkhan, and everything revolves around Nirn rather than it being a celestial body as part of any solar system. Is Nirn even spherical or is it just a flat landmass inhabited in a realm that staves off the rest of Oblivion?

[@Akatosh888]

Fun fact. Hjaalmarch is located atop of the Greymoor caverns in blackreach. Which have plenty of volcanic activity.

[@JacobWHill]

why in the heck do I find this stuff so interesting to watch but I can't pay attention to my science class

[@LeftoverPat]

we decide when something is relevant

[@orthodoxcrusader8568]

@@LeftoverPat truth I know the complete story of tamriel inculding the gods and I am failing maths TES stuff is more useful tho

[@karam3541]

Because science classes make you learn about stuff you don't particularly care about VS. science videos on youtube you willingly clicked on.

[@ROBOHOLIC1]

You are criminally underrated. Also, this video really helped me with my world building.

[@alexisortiz661]

Are you a writer?

[@ROBOHOLIC1]

@@alexisortiz661 not yet.

[@dadude4960]

although the game is built with Scandinavia in mind, it did miss something. there's not even 10% of that amount of tundra. just check how green the Nordic countries are. this landscape is more similar to the Nordics + Arctic during the ice age. something that most don't realize: tundra is a cold desert. a cold desert in the sense that they are arid. tundra has very similar properties to desert in many ways. the lack of vegetation prevents the same lacking vegetation to break down the rocks into soil. which is what makes tundra so unique. the lack of vegetation prevents further vegetation. water has a much harder time to travel upwards on tundra and will trickle down immediately. test this yourself: take a bucket filled with rocks and one with soil and pour water in. soil: the water stays on top and trickles down slowly. rocks: there's a lake on the bottom. - which is also why rock formations have the most underwater sources (mineral water). at some point, the high pressure from above, will make the rocks impenetrable for water. normal plants can't reach this far - thus no normal plants. the only thing that can live off of rocks and decompose them into soil, are sun craving microbes and plants. these do require rain though. tundra: too cold to rain. the city itself isn't tundra. there's plants and grass growing everywhere. but it is surrounded by tundra. it's also walled up. so any snow coming in would be stopped by the mountains + walls. and from the south? there's an upwards slope towards the city. wind is more likely to go to the side than up or down, when given the chance. very little would get up. and then it's a city. the temperature inside is far higher than surrounding areas. the remaining snow gets melted before it reaches the walls. aaaaand i wrote a geography essay on a youtube video.

[@LeftoverPat]

Never stop being you! The possibilities for theory seem so endless when we try to extract exact climate explanations from in game clues. I think you're on to something, especially regarding uphill slopes too. I can't help but want to pretend what we see in Skyrim is actually just a small representation of what "the real thing" is... "The real thing" actually being a Daggerfall-sized map. So what you're mentioning may be that much more reasonable when we scale the world! I was also surprised at the lack of greenery, it's almost comical. Then I look at a world map.... Perhaps high rock is more GEOGRAPHICALLY similar to Scandinavia... And what's to the East? Russian Siberian wastes... Ala Skyrim.

[@SeverinHawkland7855]

There is a lot of tundra on low mountains actually, so it is verry like scandinavia. At least norway. Do you live somewhere in scandinavia.

[@zenenglund8325]

However, Alaska does have large swaths of tundra throughout it's northern region. Although Nord culture is modeled after the Scandinavians, Skyrim itself looks similar in size to Alaska.

[@danghostman2814]

"...more similar to the Nordics + Arctic during the ice age." Indeed. And happily we have an entire continent "lost to ice and winter", Atmora, north of Skyrim only a bit (relatively) off the map. The glacial edge may be working its way down the intervening ocean all through the history of Tamriel from the last migrating Nords to TES V.

[@_Dovar_]

Most of the Whiterun Hold should be as green as Falkreath.

[@kingofcymru9855]

Warm water from Markarth makes a remarkable amount of sense when you consider that it is likely to be run off waste water from the STEAM powered engines that fill the city and route to Haafingar. Had the developers payed more mind to it there would be countless outlets from the cities into the rivers, its just realistic to real world needs (like how water from a sink goes down the drain, to the sewer)

[@viorelhelesteu1092]

You are a hidden gem, my friend. Yet, I am pretty sure that the Adamatine Tower in High Rock and Red Mountain were there before the elves walked Tamriel, one being built by the Et'ada to decide the fate of Lorkan, and the other rising from the sea after his heart landed there (what they decided to do seems apparent).Also the Throat of the world kinda was there. The other ones were built by the Elves to mirror their spiritual ancestors. EDIT: And if by putting one in Morrowind you meant "The Brass Tower" you are officially the Tenth Divine!

[@WretchedRedoran]

>Tenth Divine >Implying there's a Ninth Divine Found a true son/daughter of Skyrim!

[@ncrranger6327]

@@WretchedRedoran A Redoran talking about being a true son of Skyrim, my day is complete

[@WretchedRedoran]

@@ncrranger6327 Found a member of the NCR who isn't talking about nuclear winters, my day is complete!

[@Himmyjewett]

9th* talos a hoe

[@delta-a17]

I always thought they modeled the world of Skyrim as it is at the hottest time of year.

[@LeftoverPat]

I'd imagine if Skyrim had seasons, we'd definitely see a snowy Solitude

[@delta-a17]

@@LeftoverPat I'm pretty sure there is a mod that adds seasons and snowcover, complete with a snowy Solitude.

[@ciaranmck4469]

@@delta-a17 yeah but it's a mod though isnt it however I did hear a comment say there was a small chance for snow to occur anywhere in skyrim

[@muslimcrusader5987]

They made Skyrim look like Cyrodiil 2.0. I don’t like it. The whole country should be entirely snowy.

[@delta-a17]

@@muslimcrusader5987 Might've been pretty boring to only have one look to the whole game like that...

[@LeftoverPat]

I wonder what some other deductions we might make from observing Tamriel's weather, and if they match up with the climate we see? What counts as canonical when it comes to WEATHER?

[@evzenvarga9707]

"cities like Dawnstar" thats barely a Village.

[@user-un5xj1wl6p]

Village? You mean hamlet. Witcher 1 has 3 bigger villages that are obviously more developed but they still feature a lot of fill-in empty and locked hamlets... the problem is that they didn' fake the large city size... same with the IC they should've gone with a lockdown system back then but we can do it now

[@alexbattaglia8297]

I mean the definition of city varies from place to place, where I live a city is defined as a settlement with 1000 or more residents, but the city I live in which has around 2.5 million people would be considered a town in China

[@DanganronpaEnjoyer]

Well...yeah No one ever fucking comes there-

[@hafor2846]

I mean, every settlement in Skyrim is barely a village. Sometimes a village with walls.

[@mrdoormat6809]

Most of settlements in skyrim are downscaled to fuck. So a town that house hundreds of houses and manors are downscaled to only dozens and more. This is because of engine limitation. Most village in skyrim even only contain 5 house at most, 1 house/inn at least. So solitude can be a big city on gigantic arc that house hundred thousand of people, but Beth downscaled it so your poor little poopoobox wont explode when city cells are loaded. (Not to mention that Beth Havox engine are outdated as heck). Gameplay-story segregation mate, don't take everything at face value.

[@warhawk638]

It's little touches like this which make me love fictional worlds, as someone who studies geography irl.

[@TheWatcher328]

This is Wendover Productions level of research. Great video.

[@OmegaStudios321]

Another amazing video ! Keep up the good work !

[@brigo1744]

You’re such an underrated elder scrolls KZbinr I love the research you put into these vids

[@brycevo]

Great job with the logic and reasonings

[@Look_Upon_The_Heart]

Nearly a year later and you're still responding. This makes me very happy.

[@saltysaltmaker3848]

The algorithm threw one of your videos at me. The fact you can make a video on coastal weather systems interesting is pretty cool.

[@tofuto4492]

It is a bit of a shame that they didn't implement seasons, but given that they didn't, I think that they chose the absolute best time of year to set the game in as it lets us look into this sort of interesting climate stuff. I think it's safe to say that in the winter, the entire country would be covered in snow, and in the middle of summer, the only snow and ice would likely be in the high mountains and the glaciers near winterhold, so its great to see this transition season. Great video!

[@LeftoverPat]

Thank you for this thoughtful comment!

[@ophidahlia1464]

This is some really well-reasoned and thoroughly researched analysis. Congrats, you've managed to make fictional video game weather way more fascinating than it has any right to be. Subscribed!

[@GeoffRogers42]

Wow, I have even more respect for Bethesda's world building, great video

[@pickaname3057]

I love you’re Channel you deserve so much more views

[@LeftoverPat]

Thank you so much!

[@RohannvanRensburg]

I think this also explains (possibly, I'm no meteorologist) why i.e. Lofoten in Norway is well within the arctic circle but doesn't get as cold as many parts of central Canada.

[@LeftoverPat]

correct! also inland cities just get more extreme temperatures than coastal ones

[@RohannvanRensburg]

​@@LeftoverPat True! But even NYC and some coastal areas in BC (Canada) seem to get way colder temps than some of those moderately populated northern regions. The explanation of precipitation is also quite interesting. It again makes sense, then, that Moscow has a difficult time handling a moderate amount of snow (given that it doesn't happen very often).

[@gertwegh]

I'm so happy, I never thought I'd see a Geography Now reference! Barbie the geography wizard!

[@LeftoverPat]

Hah! Glad someone caught that

[@danelectro2112]

Excellent video, and I'm always glad to see techno viking pop up... ;D A forthcoming video on the towers? *nudge**nudge*

[@codylbrown3961]

Man great videos!

[@Mycotography]

nice channel, i see you getting many more subs, keep up the good work!

[@Noelwiz]

Great video!

[@darkpaw1522]

Great analysis, very underrated video.

[@LeftoverPat]

thank you!

[@Garinovitch]

I felt your video was really really fascinating. Personally I feel it WOULD snow in Solitude, but most games especially Skyrim aren't capable of such dynamic weathers and seasons to the point during winter months it'd be snowy (or snowier in some regions), sun setting earlier in winter months and sun setting later in summer months, etc, so they had to present Skyrim especially in a time bubble and present it in a way that would offer variety rather than snow snow snow snow snow snow for example.

[@Azuris190]

Great Video!

[@T.A.Stanley]

Wow! love this and you! :)

[@honinakecheta601]

I use the frostfall mod, as well as a seasons mod for Skyrim and it makes Solitude freezing cold. It doesn’t snow often, but there is a lot of cold rain

[@thewimp9630]

I was today years old when I asked myself that question.

[@remainprofane7732]

This is excellent!

[@unhodin]

I know this video was before its release, but despite it not being snowy, an NPC in Solitude in ESO's Greymoor expansion mentions how cold the city gets with all the snow during winter, and a large portion of the swamps and morthal are completely covered in snow as well

[@LeftoverPat]

Yeah, it's likely every TES game is just perpetually going to be in summer and that's the real answer - at least until winter time ;)

[@JaysasterGaming]

Actually it does snowfall, but not all the time though.

[@JaysasterGaming]

Graymore Caverns maybe the cause for the most warm weather, if the volcanic activity hasn't disappeared.

[@kikimckiki1165]

Please do a video on the towers I’m super interested in those!

[@johnmata8182]

I usually spend ages trying to figure it out, and surprisingly you get actual wizards who pop up doing the same thing. Literally everywhere there just protected by you. So freaking rad.

[@M0ggea]

What a great video to fall asleep to

[@Rex-The-Wolf]

This also explains why northern and middle wrothgar are frozen winter wonder lands amd rovenspire to be deas at tge sides of the mountains that shield the rest Even tho most of rivenspire is a wasteland, that part up north is a wasteland and appears to be very cold xD

[@JoaoPauloSoares61]

Cool, nice vid.

[@theprimestskeletron676]

It's possible that the Wheels of Lull just lied to me on this, but isnt the only tower in Skyrim somewhere around the Throat of the World? Also wow your videos are really good how are you his underrated

[@virtualtours3000]

You can explain everything in elder scrolls with one word: MAGIC!

[@evervirescent]

i have a feeling we’re gonna get some very interesting tower lore in the near future

[@Jadenmic]

I love your content!

[@LeftoverPat]

Thank you!

[@Matt_the_pirate]

Cyrodillic jungle ceased to exist because Tiber Septim rewritten the course of history and willed it not to be there in the first place when he achieved CHIM

[@mechkota]

I like your explanation with the ocean currency,mountains, rivers ect.. It really makes sense.Especially when you add the idea that Skyrim takes place in the autumn or teh spring. But I have some questions. 1. Why Vvardenfell and Mainland East Morrowind are having different climate than Skyrim despite the fact that they are in one longitude? 2. Same question about Wrothgar and Rivenspire?

[@windhelmguard5295]

three reasons: skyrim is cut off from warm continental air by the jerral mountains, morrowind has no mountain range separating it from black marsh, thus they'll get more warm air from the south. morrowind has an east coast, which could harbour warm sea currents. this would already be enough, since france and Germany have a similar thing going on.

[@M_Julian_TSP]

@@windhelmguard5295 Well you may be right for Morrowind, but France and Germany both have the same climate (Cfb oceanic) on the same latitude...

[@windhelmguard5295]

@@M_Julian_TSP that is simply incorrect as france is nearly always warmer and/or more humid than Germany.

[@M_Julian_TSP]

@@windhelmguard5295 it is generally warmer and more humid though it is still the same Cfb oceanic climate, it's just that it gets more continental going east. While in Tamriel the problem is on a bigger scale, Morrowind has humid subtropical climate (Cfa) on the same latitude and altitude as Falkreath

[@baron3904]

​@@M_Julian_TSPOceanic climates are very varied...

[@holymelon8011]

I always interpreted it as seasons, like riftons fall, windhelm and snowy cities deep winter, whiterun spring/fringes of winter, solitude falkreth and markarth is spring/summer

[@danielryder5808]

Either the change in composition in the atmosphere due to the Dragonborn screaming or perhaps a lower elevation along with warm water and the jet stream wrapping around morthal redirects precipitation which is heavier like snow towards another area

[@artemaheks]

Yo this video is lit af, sorry it took me three years to see it.

[@nagihangot6133]

It snowed in my Holidays playthrough.

[@frozeneevee]

I never really thought about it but it was strange that it doesn't snow in solitude Also, great video! learned a lot more about weather than I did before!

[@treeaboo]

To note, the Towers weren't built by the Merethic Elves (Aldmer), in fact none of them were, instead they're the ones who found the first tower, Ada-Mantia (the Adamantine Tower or Direnni Tower) which existed at the beginning of the world and worked out what it was. The Altmer, their primary descendants built Crystal-Like-Law on the Summerset isle. The White-Gold Tower was built by the Ayleids in the style of the Adamantine Tower, Green-Sap was is a massive graht-oak grown by the Bosmer. Red Mountain was created when Auri-El shot Lorkhan's Heart from the top of Ada-Mantia, and where it fell on Vvardenfel is where Red Mountain was born. Snow Throat is the most mysterious, it doesn't seem to have been built by mortals yet isn't as old as Ada-Mantia (or apparently the Crystal Tower or White Gold) despite being a mountain, however it's deeply connected to the Nords and humanity in general as it is theorised Kyne created men at its summit so perhaps she is its creator which is given credence by the quote "The Nords believe men were formed on this mountain when the sky breathed onto the land. Hence the Song of Return refers not only to Ysgramor's return to Tamriel after the destruction of Saarthal, but to the Nords' return to what they believe was their original homeland." - Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition. The sky of course being Kyne. Lastly Orichalc was the tower of the Redguards on Yokuda, however it appears to have sunk along with most of the continent, it's not known exactly if it was built by the Redguards or the Lefthanded Elves, though considering Orichalc is supposedly also an avatar of the Yokudan(Redguard) god HoonDing who in helping the Redguards defeated the Lefthanded Elves "achieved permanence" by seemingly turning himself into a tower it seems likely that in a sense one could say that the ancient Redguards built it, beyond that not much is known about it, though unlike Snow Throat it at least has an origin story of some sort.

[@seekthuth2817]

Question. Is there a reason that the northern part of Cyrodiil is so snowy, but the southern part of skyrim is so green and warm look outside of the obvious "variety within each game?"

[@Pintroll300]

Altitude could explain the difference- Northern Cyrodil with its single city of Bruma could be set higher up the mountains than your southern skyrim settlements like Riverwood, Riften and Helgen, meaning the general temperatures in Bruma would be far lower than Riften for example The problem in ES is every game has a different scale to the lore and each other (The game map being far smaller than the lore dictates), making it difficult to properly compare them to verify the altitude theory; the only exception being Daggerfall

[@seekthuth2817]

@@Pintroll300 No, I actually think altitude would explain it very nicely. Thank you.

[@YangusCool]

Mountains

[@meatycitadel]

If you go further to south you'll see snows

[@reederickson3202]

Has anyone done any digging regarding the weather mechanics themselves and what influences the current weather in a given area? I only ask this because I swear to God I had a full-blown blizzard in Riverwood once, and I have no idea why that happened or if it's a glitch or what.

[@ciaranmck4469]

maybe its because of a mod but I've heard that there is a small chance for it to snow almost anywhere in skyrim except whiterun

[@matthewbibby8921]

Sometimes if I go up to Bleak falls barrow and then head down it doesn’t seem to notice and the weather carries on for a while… Did you happen to be heading down from a nearby mountain?

[@reederickson3202]

@@matthewbibby8921 Good question. If I recall correctly, no. I think I had just stayed the night at the inn, and when I came outside it was snowing.

[@Immortal_Fish]

there's so many small details in skyrim that we all take for granted

[@galliumgames3962]

I’ve always assumed that Skyrim is stuck around fall solstice for development constraints as the Rift is in fall foliage and more temperature, but boreal areas are not yet covered in snow. I would guess it does snow In Solitude, but the snowfall might be delayed further into the year because of the blocking effects of mount Kilkreath and continued warm air blowing down from the south as winter has yet to cut it off. Winterhold has trees near it, and so does the Pale, so that area probably experiences a short, but warm enough summer to support the growth of trees as it’s impossible/nonsensical for trees to be frozen 24/7 365 days of the year.

[@RaunienTheFirst]

Hey, our weather isn't always gloomy. Sometimes it's dull!

[@jzargo5797]

This one is sad that Winterhold is so cold

[@claws2129]

Not even thirty seconds in but I'm going to wager it's because Solitude has the mountains blocking the northern winds off the Sea of Ghosts from all but the east. It also probably has something to do with the methane gas likely bubbling up from the Morthal swamps. The strange lights in the marsh described by the townspeople actually being partly due to methane pockets igniting. Thats my theory anyway.

[@LeftoverPat]

You pretty much got it!

[@claws2129]

@@LeftoverPat I've drawn up a couple maps for fantasy stories and tabletop games and I try to be as realistic as possible. I'm no expert by any means but I really appreciate games like the Elder Scrolls series bringing in these subtle details.

[@napwneoenejeod3740]

Lol the red arrow about two minutes in is almost where Im from, just the south part of the Seward peninsula

[@togglefire3537]

Seasons? Theres a mod for that.

[@TheCrazyRetarded]

Thanx

[@33ttips]

Was thinking 🤔 that was the case.. Love the Video, what about Bruma in Cyrodiil?

[@LeftoverPat]

Great question! Bruma is the perfect INLAND mountain city, by contrast. In this case, I would apply the same warm currents (Elsweyr, humid Black Marsh) moving to northern climates rule, as weather gets caught in the northern Jeralls.

[@33ttips]

LeftoverPat kinda like an Tamriel Jet Stream

[@02091992able]

Yeah it must have something to do with the swamp sometimes swamps can be fed by underwater springs which can be warm if there is volcanic activity in the area. The Bering Sea is a nasty area because that is where warm air tends to collide with cold air there.

[@scarletbard6511]

I saw that Crusader Kings reference, nerd. Nice.

[@TheRealMEEDABEE]

Theory: dragons breathed too much fire and made it hot there :)

[@JaysasterGaming]

In ESO Graymore Chapter, it does snowfall, but it could be because of the Harrowstorms though, hoever it was also 1000 years later that snowfall stops happening in Solitude.

[@zaphodlucs]

my guy, you are not allowed to make such a awesome video, wtf. GEOGRAPHY, REAL GEOGRAPHY, in elder scrolls???

[@seraphinaedan1033]

Well solitude wasn’t always skyrims capital, idk what the timeline for the towers is, but if it was to be placed in an important city it would likely be Winterhold or Windhelm

[@JaysasterGaming]

In The Three Banners War, it was Windhelm.

[@meltyninjers]

1:23 unexpected ck2 is unexpected

[@ramen4629]

Yes of course I’m doing my math homework

[@barkasz6066]

I think one of the next big technological breakthroughs in open world games will be seasonal changes.

[@JonatasAdoM]

I rather like that the wind always blows in one direction, and alaways East for Skyrim is even better.

[@ra_alf9467]

Can you do one with tectonics plates in Nirn planet, please?

[@iambnc6168]

Even some newer games doesn't have such detail in their world building.

[@RebelInTheF.D.G]

When I think of Nords, I just think of the naked dudes that got trolled by witches in Morrowind, or the one roaming around Mournhold complaining about the heat. They've always felt like a meme to me, and unfortunately Skyrim didn't help, imo. Probably just stems from the fact that I started with Morrowind, so the bar is set absurdly high by default, but I liked Oblivion even more, so idk. Nords just feel hollow.

[@notgoddhoward5972]

Yes I was in the meteorology club.

[@orthodoxcrusader8568]

It did snow for me a couple of times but I have a mod that improves visual effects and weathers so maybe that caused it

[@Mbeluba]

Great quality and very watchable video. I was afraid it will be some uniformed geek ramblings only concerned with retroactively explaining what is it the game.

[@TheMetalAllfather]

>doesn't snow in Solitude (Laughs in Clear Skies shout) Yes it does.

[@gunargundarson1626]

If only the hardware allowed it, Godd Howard would make an Elder Scrolls game with every survival mod implemented.

[@WeavileLady]

I think Tamriel as a whole will get dryer overtime looking at eso’s quest “Mistress of the Lake”. The former jungles of Tamriel might of applied the continent my started much more humid but over time it became drier and drier and continues to do so. Tamriel is a super continent and those get really get dry.

[@peterprime2140]

Tamriel isn't a supercontinent. There are other continents like Atmora and Akavir.

[@USER-zn2jr]

Man you also used Ean Grimm's market music. I associate that soundtrack with Skyrim. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

[@DefecTec]

I think it’s just engine restrictions from the time, almost all of Skyrim should snow, but they just added different seasons to different areas, maybe in Tes VI we’ll get seasons

[@saintnick8864]

Grind my brother grind for those subs

[@michaelweiske702]

I don't believe the theory that all of the towers were "built" by the merethic elves. Sure, I could believe they built the towers in Aldmeris and Highrock, but the adamantine tower in Cyrodil was built by the Ayleids (or their slaves), which are still elves so I guess that could count. However, the White and Red tower are both geological features which have mythic origins, the white tower being where life was breathed into the world according to the Nords and the Red tower being where Lorkhan's heart struck Nirn after being shot with an arrow.

[@Brindle1]

For an unemployed person, this video was very informative to me

[@erikkusters378]

After installing 250 mods it finally snows 4 k dynamic snow in solitude

[@evildoctortaco]

What mod is that for Dawnstar? It looks amazing

[@riffraff1095]

"The great cities by soldierofwar" I have it and it's great! It overhauls winterhold, dawnstar, rorrikstead, and falkreath.

[@degiguess]

thats possible or maybe they just made each part of the map a different season for variety

[@jakapoljansek3649]

Nice geography now refference

[@alduin1360]

Hmmmm. Wait- Why am i watchibg this again? Oh yeah! So i know witch hold to eat first! :D

[@nepnep1453]

It’s definitely because the game starts in summer and never changes seasons. If you want to have a good look at what Skyrim looks like during winter look at the Elder Scrolls Arena map of Skyrim.

[@fabriziodefrancesco7083]

ah yeah, in summer...17 last seed (August!)

[@DrowChyld]

...huh!

[@isaacspencer846]

Nirn won't have seasons. Its a geocentric solar system.

[@docha_tiarna9318]

I wonder if there's also effects from the hot springs just north of riften

[@LeftoverPat]

Could it be evidence of a supervolcano somewhere in skyrim?

[@docha_tiarna9318]

@@LeftoverPat Which might lead to warmer temperatures of the earth near those veins. Also if tgere are any natural springs around skyrim, the water that comes up would most likely have been heated by the volcanic activity underground. This would support the part about the rivers being warmer. Edit: Just thought about how that could also explain how the Dwemer ruins still have steam power. The magma making underground steam pockets which the dwemer tapped into for steam.

[@bayzidrahman7227]

Don't forget magic. Magic can also influence the weather. Lazy but true.