The Köppen–Geiger climate classification made simpler (I hope so)

[hunter714]

Indeed, I forgot about the opacity when merging the layers. thanks, it makes a lot more sense now.

[Eldresh]

I've started on my currents so I could figure out climates, but I'm really unsure about some of them, especially my polar currents (and of those especially my northern polar currents) and some of what's going on in some of the smaller gaps near the equator. Does anything here seem odd to anyone else? I feel like something wrong but I can't put my finger on it. I feel like the northern polar current should be going the opposite direction, but I can't figure out how the loops would close if I did that.

[hunter714]

I find it usefull to project the map on a globe in order to see how the poles are represented in 3d. For me it's a bit hard to take into account (with good precision) how the poles deformations in a square projection would realy look like on a globe.

I use https://www.maptoglobe.com/ wich is simple enough and you can draw on the map you imported and see it in 3d.

[Charerg]

Ok, here's the more detailed feedback about the January precipitations for Twierdza.

As a sidenote it's recommended to start your own thread for your world, even if you're using the tutorial, since it helps to keep the tutorial thread focused on the tutorial itself and makes it a bit easier for people to follow discussions and provide feedback regarding particular conworlds.

But on to the feedback, here's my previous pressure/precipitation combined map overlaid over the January precipitations, where I've identified some regions which I disagree with. As always, the feedback is completely optional.



1. This area would be blanketed by the westerlies and should be wet, much like Europe (the extreme southern coast could remain dry).

2. This region closely resembles Peru or Namibia, the strip of land to the southwest of the Andean-like mountain chain should be a dry desert.

3. However, the basin area covered by the ITCZ would certainly not be dry, see Equador and Colombia for instance, or even the Amazon Basin.

4. This area, while in raind shadow, is still covered by the westerlies and wouldn't be completely dry, see Canada beyound the Rockies for comparison.

5. Assuming we go with the idea that there exists a subtropical high here, this area should be drier (see southwest Australia or Africa during January for comparison).

6. Being covered by the ITCZ, this region wouldn't be completely dry (at least, not likely). Even areas like the Tibetan Plateaua and Mongolia receive some rainfall during the warm season.


For reference here are the prec maps of Earth (which have been posted before in the thread):

January:


July:


That's it for the feedback regarding January! I'll try and post similar feedback about the July precipitations as well during the weekend.


EDIT:
Actually I spotted a few areas I didn't comment previously on the January map:



7. If the inner ocean does indeed develop a high pressure center, this region should be dry.

8. However, the high mountains facing the "outer ocean" should be wet, as this area would likely be hit by extratropical cyclones, and the orographic lift would contribute to the rainfall as well.

[Eldresh]

Yeah I tried looking at it on a globe but the problem I keep running into is most of these loops happen because a current hits land somewhere, but most of my land is either equatorial or polar, and it leaves me scratching my head a bit sometimes. I'll play around with it some more and see if I can get it to a place I like it.

[Charerg]

Right, here's the feedback for the July precipitations of Twierdza:



1. This high pressure area seems to disappear in July, despite being present in January: this area should be dry due to the presence of the oceanic high.

2. The ITCZ-influenced area of the equatorial continent should receive far more precipitation.

3. Similar to my feedback regarding January, the westerly influenced region is unlikely to be completely dry, it should receive some rainfall.

4. This region would be heavily affected by the summer monsoon, and should receive at least some precipitation despite the coastal mountains.

5. Assuming that the inner ocean does indeed develop that subtropical high (I'm not 100% sure of that, the Indian Ocean doesn't have a subtropical high in the northern hemisphere, as an example), this region should be dry.

6. Similar to n. 3, the ITCZ-influenced area should receive more rainfall.


So that's it for my feedback about the precipitations. Next, I can take a quick look at the climates and see how the precipitation changes would affect them.

[NadirtheFox]

Azélor - Considering how many problems I had from my photoshop not being a "proper" version you are probably right and I should start using gimp XD And thanks for the advice on climates I'll keep that in mind next time I get similar issue.
Charerg - Oh my... Now, that's some very impressively detailed feedback to be honest. Big thanks for that I'll certainly update my maps based on it. That being said...
Area 1 in January: My reasoning behind making this region so dry was that it appears separate enough from other landmasses to develop it's own australia-like winter high (and I also went with "overland high pressure centre should be poleward of the oversea one") On the other hand this area being wet works for me better, sooo...
Areas 6 in January and July: I might be wrong about that but I think that the effect of a rain shadow is based more on relative height of the mountains rather than on their absolute height - If height difference is gradual enough not all of precipitated water will flow to the bottom and instead a significant portion of it will be absorbed by vegetation on the slopes and then released back to the air via transpiration and therefore have less vertical distance to cover So if the winds are blowing over high but gently sloped mountains some moisture can get through (I'm pretty sure that's the case with Mongolia) but if the rise is very sharp then there will form a rain shadow even if the mountains are relatively low (kinda like the Great Dividing Range) I meant the latter to be the case in this region (minus the "relatively low" part) but as I said: I might be wrong. (And as I look at it now I think it would still make sense to expand wet area in July)
But other than that I can't argue with anything else XD Massive thanks again
(Oh, and in that case I will create separate thread for this world. I just didn't expect it to take this many posts XD)

[Azélor]

I've started on my currents so I could figure out climates, but I'm really unsure about some of them, especially my polar currents (and of those especially my northern polar currents) and some of what's going on in some of the smaller gaps near the equator. Does anything here seem odd to anyone else? I feel like something wrong but I can't put my finger on it. I feel like the northern polar current should be going the opposite direction, but I can't figure out how the loops would close if I did that.

Overall, the currents are good except in the north pole. The blue current is close enough to the pole to flow toward the west.

[Charerg]

Azélor - Considering how many problems I had from my photoshop not being a "proper" version you are probably right and I should start using gimp XD And thanks for the advice on climates I'll keep that in mind next time I get similar issue.
Charerg - Oh my... Now, that's some very impressively detailed feedback to be honest. Big thanks for that I'll certainly update my maps based on it. That being said...
Area 1 in January: My reasoning behind making this region so dry was that it appears separate enough from other landmasses to develop it's own australia-like winter high (and I also went with "overland high pressure centre should be poleward of the oversea one") On the other hand this area being wet works for me better, sooo...
Areas 6 in January and July: I might be wrong about that but I think that the effect of a rain shadow is based more on relative height of the mountains rather than on their absolute height - If height difference is gradual enough not all of precipitated water will flow to the bottom and instead a significant portion of it will be absorbed by vegetation on the slopes and then released back to the air via transpiration and therefore have less vertical distance to cover So if the winds are blowing over high but gently sloped mountains some moisture can get through (I'm pretty sure that's the case with Mongolia) but if the rise is very sharp then there will form a rain shadow even if the mountains are relatively low (kinda like the Great Dividing Range) I meant the latter to be the case in this region (minus the "relatively low" part) but as I said: I might be wrong. (And as I look at it now I think it would still make sense to expand wet area in July)
But other than that I can't argue with anything else XD Massive thanks again
(Oh, and in that case I will create separate thread for this world. I just didn't expect it to take this many posts XD)

About area 1 in January, I'm fairly confident it should be mostly wet. The continent stretches from about 35 to 60ish latitudes, too far north to fall under the subtropical ridge like Australia. In addition, the development of the massive high pressure zone over the large Asia-like continent would likely push the westerlies southward to an extent. At the same time, it's too far south (and too maritime-influenced) to really develop a Siberian High-style high pressure centre, since I think that requires permanent snow cover (the snow reflects most of sunlight back into space, contributing heavily to the extremely cold conditions).

About area 6 and rain shadow: I'm not an meteorologist, so take this with a grain of salt, but as far as I know, that is not the case. At least I've never read anything to suggest that "terrace jumping" rainclouds are actually a thing (ie. clouds first dropping their moisture on a gradual slope and then more-or-less re-forming on the spot). Tbh, I think there are several factors that argue against this, the big one being that most of the water would flow downslope, and also the generally low temperatures of mountains would mean relatively low evaporation. However, you are correct that a steep slope will be more rainy, as all (or most) of the moisture will be dropped there, whereas with a more gradual slope the effect of orographic lift is more, well, gradual.

As a sidenote, I doubt the Great Dividing Range contributes much to Australia's dryness. First of all, that's neither a continuous nor a steep mountain range, it's rather similar to say, the Brazilian Highlands: old, worn down and full of gaps. If you look at the rainfall maps of Earth, you can see that the boundaries of the "rain zones" don't follow the lines of the Dividing Range (except loosely, and then mostly in New South Wales where the Range is taller). As far as I can tell, Australia's dryness is pretty much 100% caused because of its geographic location (falling under the subtropical ridge). Indeed, Australia used to have a rainy, temperate climate back when it was located further south.

The "start a new thread" advice was mostly directed towards newcomers (since you're well on your way to completing the tutorial, I'm a bit late with that advice ), though I guess it doesn't hurt to start a fresh thread. Glad you found the feedback useful!

[Eldresh]

Thanks Azelor, that was the one I was most unsure about. For some reason I thought that you couldn't have a current going the opposite way from a current near it without them looping together somehow but then I realized I was being a little silly. Changed the northern current a bit. Thought about adding in a loop where that bit sticking further south is but I couldn't find a good place to close it so I decided to ignore it.