September 2015 Challenge: Lake Bajostat Chill

[jbgibson]

So to force myself to Get In Gear, here's a minimalist start on this cold war:

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This is part of the area or federation known as Haromszek, on the geofiction world of Scandia I used to participate in. I have an album on CG of other maps from Scandia. This base map isn't particularly creative, since it's an 'established territory' that 'already exists' - but for contest purposes it's all newly drawn. Subsequent overlays will be the cold war info. The nation of Csorgyos (capital: Shlomentc) along the south coast of Lake Bajostat is the center of this conflict, with Vysocina (capital: Panstvisidlo) to its southeast heavily involved. The presentation is to historians or schoolchildren in Csorgyos decades later, hence the lack of nation-labels -- one is expected to at least know one's neighbors... The date is Scandian, of course - along about this time the 'tech level' of the world is something like Earth (say, Europe) of 1950-2000.

Hmmm. A version of the old wiki pages for both these is visible on archive.org - I really must get the Wiki presenting all manner of info on all of Scandia back in shape. Even if it isn't in active development or 'play' any more, it's still an interesting world. And since I was in it, there were maps and maps and maps.... :-)

http://web.archive.org/web/200811231...x.php/Csorgyos
http://web.archive.org/web/200811200...x.php/Vysocina

[jbgibson]

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Oh, THAT kind of cold war. What? You prefer nuclear standoffs and mutually assured destruction? Well, I'd been wanting to do a set of weather maps, and trust me - once you see the depths, you'll believe these people had a fight on their hands. Bajostat is a similar size to Lake Erie; think Buffalo, New York conditions...

Left column is individual lake effect snow events; right will be cumulative accumulation. This winter was particularly bad for Csorgyos, as the freeze line (light blue curve) did not clear the area for widespread melting for 68 days. Most winters, Bajostat is right on the 'shore' as consecutive waves of cold sweep from the north and west, with a week or two of warmer weather between snowfalls. Not 1532.

There's plenty of lakes on our planet that go all winter below freezing - why are the USA Great Lakes and Haromzek's Lake Bajostat such snow generators? Because they stay unfrozen long into the cold. A frozen lake doesn't give up much moisture to passing air, but even barely above freezing liquid surfaces can have enormous amounts of water slurped up, and to an extent the warmer the water, the greater the effect.

Anybody got a snowmobile vendor? These folks do!



(Making logos for the businesses of my worlds - another vice of mine, and an excuse to collect fonts (as though one needed an excuse) )

[snodsy]

Love the "small multiple" idea, however I'd like to see something to suggest a conflict (cold war) location of element build up, change of town names, etc, something to show the actual "Cold War" of the federation.

[fabio p]

I second snodsy opinion. A little more "action" wouldn't hurt!

[jbgibson]

Oh, there's action - I'll show part in accompanying text. But I'm pushing the definition of cold war with tongue in cheek - these poor people were experiencing the worst winter in a hundred fifty years, and their struggle was to stay alive amid some really hostile conditions. The weapons were plows and shovels, and the death toll as of the date I show detailed below was several hundred, despite modern technical capabilities almost up to our equivalent date.

There's also a stalemate, much as in a military cold war - you know how both sides will stare at one another from defensible positions, waiting for another move? Well, by mid-December pretty much all of the lakeside republic of Csorgyos is at a complete standstill. Citizens are holed up in homes and shelters waiting for a break in the weather.

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JezevSci had by December 15 sold their entire Csorgyos stock of snowmobiles, and had ordered stock at dealers in other Haromszeki republics be shipped back to meet the need for rescue transport. There were plenty of other tracked vehicles in use, as well as sorties by the rigid airships of Haromszek's Air Rescue Corps - when weather cleared enough. Unfortunately, the successive waves of high winds generating all this snow limited air operations to less than a week of the month of December. Citizens are pretty well prepared - while as of mid-December this was already a harsh winter, people in Csorgyos and surrounding nations are used to blizzards and power outages.

[jbgibson]

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Considering all the wind that was blowing, it wasn't so much that Csorgyos ranged from three meters to eight meters of snow, but that with drifting, the depths ranged from a half a meter to twenty. Now you know why these folks tend to build roads and homesteads on exposed heights, not sheltered hollows and low river plains... You also know why there's lengths of pipe leaning on chimneys in the summer -- flue extenders for the deepest of snow times. Because if there's something worse than the fire in your hearth going out, its when it keeps going after the chimney is blocked, and everyone asphyxiates. Vysocina's barns are *big*... the livestock have to shelter indoors just as people do. And the factory districts of cities are actually *favored* as dwelling zones - the fires of industry leave pockets of completely cleared space... as long as the fuel holds out. Road travel on major highways during this winter lasted only until the second to third week of December in the affected areas, and rail travel only a few days more. But the wise corporations and citizens had fuel tanks, coal piles, and wood stacks galore. Those that did not, did not last till February.

Now the map sequence shows the last major lake-effect snowfall. There's still some depth-coloring to do in those last two frames, as the thaw just started. Really, a few weeks of 10 degree C weather did not have a huge effect - it can take snow a LONG time to melt. Indeed, in 1533 there were still pockets of snow on the ground in Vysocina and Csorgyos into late June. That's no marvel in upland Tarej, or the border with Sapmi. But beside Lake Bajostat? As small compensation for the rigors of the winter, a constant stream of tourists came with the opening of rail and road, to experience firsthand the Year With No Spring.

And JezevSci reported the best profits of any year for decades before or after.

[jbgibson]

Okay, I'll call this a newspaper-published infographic on the "historic freeze of 1532-1533", in retrospect decades later. If the Cerbesti Times had better graphic artists (i.e. if I could draw worth a toot) there would be some accompanying illustrations - "Shlomentc's Skana Tower at fifteen floors showing instead of twenty-two". "Palace Bagu disappears beneath the drifts". "Eastern Shore Express frozen to the rails by Gonzueli Creek Bridge". "Sleigh delivery of coal to downtown Nacierbirk fourth-floor windows".

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I know I'm at (off?! :-) ) the edge of the intent of the contest, but i do often compete tongue in cheek. In a totally lame defense, I'll assert that these antagonists (weather vs. people) spent months at a stalemate. Of a certainty traffic could neither advance or retreat, and people were hunkered down in hiding as much as any belligerents in trenches or bunkers across a no-man's-land. How about the conflict-by-proxy aspect of some cold wars? Hmmmmm. Well, as far as rescue and relief activities, *outside nations* unaffected by the lake-effect snowdrifts were the ones operating zeppelins, sno-cat convoys, and air-dropping soot bombs. Huh? Soot bombs? Of course - anything to darken the surface would help melt snow, even in subzero temperatures. Puff-bombs loaded with carbon black - why not? Not to mention honest-to-goodness excuses for military flamethrowers in "combat" to melt roadways. Mind you that usually backfired, leaving less snow, but more ice after. But who says government relief efforts all make sense?

Looking at all the other absolutely delightful and mapparific entries, I am content for this to be an also-ran - and I had fun making a type I had not tried before.

Now I'm going to make a mug of hot tea - for some reason I feel cold...