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I translated my question/text with a translator because English is not my native language. I hope there are no mistakes.

Can you help me to define realistic climate zones and weather for my fictional world map? I am struggling with the climate zones and weather of my world map.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about geography or meteorology (I'm uneducated on that). But I would like it to be correct. I have spent a long time searching, but it is very difficult to understand. That's why I would like help, please.

I have not defined information like the axis of rotation of the planet, in which direction it turns, etc... (I really don't know anything about it). So I guess it those can change.

Maybe should go up or down a little bit more the western continent or the eastern continent? I don't know.

I haven't yet precisely defined the Eastern continent.

My story will take place in the Western continent and mainly in :

  • purple numbers,

  • blue numbers

  • red numbers (with the desert),

  • the number 10 (with also the small island)

  • the number 11

  • the continental forest.

So I need these mentioned areas to stay next to each other. The other areas are changeable, so you can move or change its position.

These are States. And the numbers that have the same color are States that form an empire.

To clarify: The big forest in the western continent is a somewhat supernatural forest, which goes beyond the laws of nature and where strange things happen. So that could be a reason for it to be like that climatically speaking.

enter image description here

EDIT 23 march 2022

I thank the Workdbuilding community comments for focusing this question. I took into account the following :

the climate zones are not straight lines ocean currents also needed mountains can stop the wind or the rain on the other side I have a lot of oceans (maybe too much), I have filled a little with lands (islands) the oceanic and continental climate occupy the same latitude my lands are big (maybe too much I think) For research, I followed the advice given in the Artifexian videos and also on this website (https://rollforfantasy.com/guides/map-creation-climates.php).

I am now sharing the result with rhe community.

There are some areas on which I did not put any climate (not colored) because I do not know yet what I should put. It's complicated ^^'

I hope you can help me.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. $\endgroup$
    – Community Bot
    Mar 20, 2022 at 14:35
  • $\begingroup$ I need help in the creation of the climate zones and the weather/meteorology of my map. $\endgroup$
    – Lendellz
    Mar 20, 2022 at 14:46
  • $\begingroup$ I can tell you right now that your ocean currents are all wrong. $\endgroup$
    – hszmv
    Apr 28 at 15:31

3 Answers 3

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Climate zones are no straight lines

My two cents: you provide a quite common subdivision, with Earth terminology. That is ok.

Issue is.. all your lines are straight lines. Climate zones are not only determined by the sphere shape of a planet. Ocean currents and continental border shapes play a role, deserts and forests indicate climate as well. For example you have these "dry zones" on either side of your equator. Looking at the map, you have a desert sitting only north of the Equator, forest all around. Your dry zone starts wider in the west, on the east side, the "dry zone" will bend south, to allow the forest to be Tropical.

For Earth, this is also the case. The climate zones are about horizontal, but not exactly horizontal. Look at Western Africa.. the coastal region is light blue, cooled by the Atlantic Ocean, yielding lower temperatures along the Equator. Inland, you find a dark blue equatorial zone.

enter image description here

Useful study on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ppen_climate_classification

EDIT: a tip from by LuizPSR's yesterday's comments: your big forest will be very humid, and area 1, 2 and 3 would become arid climate, when you put a western wind on the coast.

Some notes about colors

I like the subtle colors in your question now. The harsh colors Wikipedia shows are not obligatory for climate maps and do not fit yours. When your story has several maps, their colors should be balanced.. same style.. and the colors "hues" must fit with the "atmosphere" of a story. Leave out pure red.. it does not fit with green-blue. Never blue for land. The legenda of your climate map will be grey, yellow, pink, orange and green shades for the climate zones on land

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you so much for your very helpful answer! Ok, let me take into account your advice on the lines that depend on the shape of the planet but also, on the shapes of the borders and the ocean currents. I will modify my map according to what you said, the wikipedia link you gave and my will. Then I'll come back here ;) $\endgroup$
    – Lendellz
    Mar 20, 2022 at 17:46
  • $\begingroup$ @Lendellz my pleasure.. and keep in mind the planet is the main factor. The lines just need to bend, locally, where sea shore is near.. a desert.. or mountains that can stop winds.. I would suggest you add some ocean currents to your map, before making a climate map. You have lots of ocean there.. the ocean corrents may be more important than Earth's ocean currents, as a result your lines will bend some more. $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Mar 20, 2022 at 17:52
  • $\begingroup$ Another good example would be comparing the US Midwest to the Northern Mediterranean to Northern China. All three regions are around 40° N latitude, but have very different climates due to other aspects of geography. $\endgroup$
    – Austin Hemmelgarn
    Mar 21, 2022 at 1:10
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you Goodies and Austin :) Can you check my new version map ? Is it credible now? Please if you have something to notice me, would you help me please? :) (uuuhh sorry for my bad english) $\endgroup$
    – Lendellz
    Mar 21, 2022 at 21:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Lendellz the forum rules are strict, I've edited above answer, summarizing a few previous comments. Sphennings was right, if you need more advice, my tip would be: FIRST read the help center, THEN make a new question and ask something really different about your ocean currents and winds. $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Mar 22, 2022 at 10:15
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Your land masses are big!

It is 7400 km from the equator to the Arctic circle (on earth). Your round continent is just about 7400 km north to south and east to west. It is almost as big as Africa which is 7400 east to west and 8000 north to south.

map

I took your map, put a bar showing the 7400km from equator to arctic circle then put those bars on your round continent. I added Africa to scale. The bay at the top of your round continent is the size of Hudson Bay in Canada.

The diversity of interior biomes (and landforms; rivers, mountain ranges) on the round continent is appropriate for a big island like Madagascar. The shore detail looks like you were thinking on that scale too. But if this is an Earth sized world you have made some big continents! Scale up and think bigger and place interior diversity to match something continent sized like Africa or North America.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much for your answer, you helped me well! I had my new map result depending on what you and Goodies and LuizPSR said :) $\endgroup$
    – Lendellz
    Mar 21, 2022 at 21:52
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There are quite a few inaccuracies, but unless you are going for realism rather than fantasy, climate can easily be ignored. Nobody complains about the climate in game of thrones, and their seasons can last anything between months and decades.

As for the corrections, it seems that you sorted the climates based on latitude alone, but oceanic currents are very important as well. Oceanic and continental (temperate) occupy roughly the same latitudes, but the oceanic is closer to warm currents, while the other is found on the interior of continents and coasts with cold currents. Same thing for subtropical and mediterranean.

There's a youtuber that cover this topic in further detail (Artifexian):

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  • $\begingroup$ Artifexian's videos are very good generally and especially when it comes to climate and biome modelling. $\endgroup$
    – Ash
    Mar 20, 2022 at 20:26
  • $\begingroup$ THank you to make me know these video, I watched entirely and it was helpful! (difficult but useful!!). Can you check my new version of map please? :) $\endgroup$
    – Lendellz
    Mar 21, 2022 at 21:54

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