Why doesn't it snow in Solitude?

[LeftoverPat]

I started thinking about why there wasn't snow in Solitude, and was wondering if it could possibly be due to weather currents. Are there any ingame explanations of why Solitude isn't snowy, when it's so far north?

I came across this video which explains possibilities pretty well, but I'm not sure if Skyrim is just the way it is because the game is set in the middle of August. Pretty interesting that wind blows East, didn't know about that mechanic, but still not sure that would explain it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVZfpE_WYWw

[LukanGamer]

to many hot heads haha or wait are there to many lose red ones nah there only 1 of them ever, yep to many hot heads.

[LeftoverPat]

Originally posted by LukanGamer:

to many hot heads haha or wait are there to many lose red ones :hrx_grover: nah there only 1 of them ever, yep to many hot heads.

Do you mean too many sweet red headed nord women? Because that would be a fine explanation

[mikk011]

Thank you for this; your analysis seems to jibe with the little I know about the subject. That said, I think you were right in doubting that the devs were thinking this deeply when they starting planning Tamriel way back when.

edit: and I live in a place with warm downslope winds from the mountains :)

[alexander_dougherty]

Given that Solitude always has a faint smattering of snow about, I think it must snow in Solitude... Just not when your there

[258789553873]

Because like most, if not all, fantasy games, the world builders don't know the first thing about climatology. Though to be fair, to find out for sure what the climate of Tamriel would be like given its geography and solar system, would require a supercomputer, as in the kind normally used to find cures for cancer, or do climate change research.

As for the game's weathers, they were apparently unable to make it so that Skyrim could experience seasons (which I don't get considering that the sims 2, a game from the mid 2000s, had seasons, but whatever), so instead they made different regions of the game look like they were permanently stuck in one of the four seasons. Whiterun hold is supposed to be real-world Scandanavia in spring, the Rift represents their summer, the Reach their autumn, and of course the pale is a Scandinavian winter.

As for Solitude, where, its really glaringly obvious that it makes no sense. The entire northern coast of the country is covered in snow, yet Solitude is not despite its elevation. Though honestly, this seems to be the norm for the entirity of Haafingar hold, aside for the coastline hidden behind a mountain range anyway.

Though if you think this is bad, you should've seen World of Warcraft in its early days. Each region had its own climate, and there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to which region had which climate. They even completely disregarded lattitude. For example, the dwarven/gnome starting zone was blanketed in snow, but far to the south was a tropical jungle, while to the north was temperate climates! The only one of these that were ever explained was Quel'thalas, where it was established in the lore long before the game that the local elves were using magic to lock their homeland in a never-ending summer. Beyond this though, each region seemed to just be locked in its own climate zone that wasn't affected AT ALL by the neighboring climate zones, or where exactly it was located on the planet.