Why is there snow in Skellinge?

[zigge]

Why is it snowing down in Skellinge eventhough the Islands are located pretty southwest from Novigrad and Oxenfurt. Pretty sure it doesn't have anything with groundlevel to do because it snows at sea level on Skellinge.

[Ari]

It rains on snow mountain peaks too

[General Malaise]

Originally posted by eclipse538:

Originally posted by wenzya:

Why is it snowing down in Skellinge eventhough the Islands are located pretty southwest from Novigrad and Oxenfurt. Pretty sure it doesn't have anything with groundlevel to do because it snows at sea level on Skellinge.

its isnt planet earth first of all, nor is that realm at all based on planet earth. another question to pose; what makes you think the map of Witcher 3 is somehow situated north to south in the same fashion our world map is? perhaps there North is based on a different set of rules. or perhaps the north and south poles on this planets are not furthest from the sun, and hence not cold. North and South and East and West is arbirtrary to Earth. to another planet or any fantasy world, theyre North could be our West. its fantasy...

It's not the distance from The Sun - the difference is next to nothing. It's the angle to The Sun, sunlight spread over a larger area the poles, than at the equater. Just saying.

:)

[Conejo]

Same reason theres people called witchers that have magical powers...

[Cigam]

I used to think the same about Morrowind. How does Solstheim have a climate that is like Antarctica when it is only a few miles away from some of the more desert-like regions of Morroowind?

Guess it is just one of those things you have to accept in videogames. Like the fact that you can have "cities" such as Winterhold with perimeters that can be walked around in a matter of minutes. Think it would take more than a day to walk around my city. At least.

[Rafael Freeman]

Two (possible) reasons.

Obviously the scale in videogames is very different from the scale in the real world, but if we accept that, there is a possible explanation.

The local temperature in the real world is very much determined by sea currents that transport warm or cold water.

For example: New York and Madrid have the same latitude (and therefore the same distance to the poles) but the Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe (and heats up Florida as well).

As a result Madrid is much warmer than New York.

The way Skellige is situated it's certainly conceivable that its temperature relative to Novigrad is determined by a current.

As for the snow: Skellige has a lot of high mountains. Mountains push the air up, and that cools the air because there is less air pressure at a high altitude and this causes water vapor to expand. Gas that expands cools down, it's how a refrigerator works.

Depending on the temperature this will cause rain or snow. Once snow falls, this will reflect sun light and keep the surface cool and the temperature will drop.