RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Flickering Ember · **03-31-2015, 05:08 PM**

Things like day and night have been talked about before and I can't remember if we've talked about the varying seasons on here: A quick forum search turned up nothing.

Since it's been relevant for my character, I have been trying to figure out what kind of desert Thanalan is and what the temperatures are like. My own thoughts put Thanalan as a mild desert, as it has a lot of plantlife and animals similar to some of the park regions out in western America. It is also on a coast and although it may still not get much precipitation, it is most likely affected by ocean currents.

There is also the question of 'extremes'. Typically deserts can be very hot but can also get cold during the winter. I've been trying to look into this and there are differing amounts of information, particularly because many of the different deserts around the world are in different regions. If Thanalan is at or near Hydaelyn's equator, for example, then temperatures probably won't drop too much with average lows in the 60's. If Thanalan is not near the equator then it probably has a winter where it can possibly snow or get below freezing.

1. What IRL desert do you think Thanalan is most like?
2. Is Thanalan near Hydaelyn's equator?
3. Does Thanalan have cold winters/freezing nights?

Zhavi · **03-31-2015, 05:27 PM**

(03-31-2015, 05:08 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: Things like day and night have been talked about before and I can't remember if we've talked about the varying seasons on here: A quick forum search turned up nothing.

Since it's been relevant for my character, I have been trying to figure out what kind of desert Thanalan is and what the temperatures are like. My own thoughts put Thanalan as a mild desert, as it has a lot of plantlife and animals similar to some of the park regions out in western America. It is also on a coast and although it may still not get much precipitation, it is most likely affected by ocean currents.

There is also the question of 'extremes'. Typically deserts can be very hot but can also get cold during the winter. I've been trying to look into this and there are differing amounts of information, particularly because many of the different deserts around the world are in different regions. If Thanalan is at or near Hydaelyn's equator, for example, then temperatures probably won't drop too much with average lows in the 60's. If Thanalan is not near the equator then it probably has a winter where it can possibly snow or get below freezing.

1. What IRL desert do you think Thanalan is most like?
2. Is Thanalan near Hydaelyn's equator?
3. Does Thanalan have cold winters/freezing nights?

Honestly, there are too many variations that could only be answered by Squaresoft. You wanna know why despite all of our science and technology we still have a hard time predicting local weather? Because it is super freaking complicated.

* Mountains would affect weather.
* Low and high pressure centers would affect weather, especially in relation to the mountains.
* Current temperatures of the ocean would MAJORLY affect weather (ie, whether it is relatively hot water heading north or relatively cold water heading south on the west side of eorzea, as well as any jet streams nearby).
* How much ocean is between Eorzea and other landmasses.
* Even assuming the global bands of air currents were placed similarly to Earth's, without a good idea of landmasses you wouldn't be able to really accurately predict them. And even in predicting them, companies tend to be dumb and do things that make no sense because well, story matters more anyways).

etc etc etc

Honestly I'd just classify it as a dry (arid or semiarid) climate and sorta stay vague on the details. It's on the west side of the continent, and those tend to foster that type of environment in earth (for reasons that may or may not affect ff's world), and, well, bleh.

edit - linky-link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ppen...sification

Hyakki · **03-31-2015, 06:21 PM**

(03-31-2015, 05:08 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: 1. What IRL desert do you think Thanalan is most like?

Eastern Thanalan reminds me of Nothern Arizona. Sedona, Grand Canyon, that kind of thing.

Geographical Speculation: Thanalan

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes