70+ Weather Features For Fantasy Worldbuilding40 min read

Mist and storms and twisters and fires! Welcome back, Outlander, to the 16th entry in Mythic Ecology, my series on how learning real-world landscape features can enrich our fantasy worldbuilding and storytelling. In this post I return to my minimalist framework for Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, fiction writers, and similar worldbuilders to merge the realms of general myth and geomorphology. Last entry I took a diversion for my Waterform Worldbuilding Cheatsheet summary. As I resume my journey sketching a framework for designing Yridia, my unique D&D 5e fantasy world, let’s learn some weather phenomena, with a visual guide!

All the images herein I use for educational and entertainment purposes, I claim no rights to any of them. For corrections or content removal requests, hit my contact page.

Let’s revisit my minimalist framework for my worldbuilding. The six archetype tags with which I will flag all the various real-world land features in my Mythic Ecology Series:

1. Settlements: habitable regions of either Work or Play, Familiar or Exotic, offering diverse narrative functions: a Day in the Life, Home Base, Personal Reasons, Gathering Supplies. Can subvert tropes with Ruins or Escape.
2. Omens: sensational, temporal, or particularly pointed features that offer narrative functions of forshadowing, and good or evil portents. Can subvert tropes with a Wild Goose Chase.
3. Overlooks: sites of magnitude and grandeur, living monuments which can function narratively for finding resolve, invoking spirits, or as a Call to Adventure. Can subvert tropes with Dread or Betrayal.
4. Passageways: transitional journeylands, including magical portals, functioning narratively for initiation and return, thresholds and tests, shortcuts and setbacks.
5. Abyss: a void or confined space presenting scarcity or temptation, desperation and danger. Can subvert tropes with a Timely Rescue or Secret Refuge.
6. Battlegrounds: sites fit for epic, sprawling encounters and climax conflicts. Can subvert tropes with Alternative Solutions.

Feel free to submit your own ideas, or draw outside the lines. Alright, let’s see how weather phenomena fit in.

TIP: Since most of this entry’s features function as omens, if you want some prophecies to go along with them, I use the free D&D random prophecy generator tools from Fantasy Name Generators, Chaotic Shiny, and Springhole.

Organized by decreasing altitude.

Noctilucent Cloud / Night Shining Clouds – a tenuous cloud-like (cirriform) phenomenon in the mesosphere, consisting of ice crystals, and only visible during astronomical twilight. Most often observed during summer, with the Sun below the observer’s horizon but while the clouds still have sunlight, in latitudes between 50* and 70* north and south of the Equator.
[Omens]

Polar Stratospheric Clouds / Nacreous Clouds – iridescent clouds in the winter polar stratosphere at extreme altitudes (~9-15 miles up). Found during civil twilight, in winter, or in northerly latitudes. Arises from ozone depletion, or frozen ice crystals.
[Omens]

Cirrus Clouds – clouds appearing as hooks, feathers, bands, or patches, with silky shimmer. Can create drizzle, freezing drizzle, or snow grains.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Cirrocumulus Clouds – clouds appearing as thin, pure white fields of small grains or ripples at high level. Can appear ahead of frontal systems.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Cirrostratus Clouds – clouds appearing as transparent milky or fibrous veils; they cast a shadow and can produce halos. Signals the approach of a warm front.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Altocumulus – clouds appearing as white or grey patches shaped like turrets, lenses, or balls, or sheets or layers with undulations or rolls. No precipitation.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Altostratus – clouds appearing as smooth, extensive layers casting no shadow, even if the Sun or Moon appear as a blurred dot. Rain possible in thickened clouds.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Nimbostratus – dark rain clouds or bright snow clouds, usually with continuous rain, hail, or snow. May have streaks or shafts of precipitation which evaporates before the ground.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Cumulonimbus – huge cloud towers, sometimes with anvil. Possible thunderstorm.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Cumulus – isolated, puffy clouds with sharp outlines. Usually little or no precipitation.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Stratus – low-level clouds characterized by horizontal layering with a uniform base, sometimes fragmented. The Sun or Moon can create a clear outline. Can create drizzle, freezing drizzle, or snow grains.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Stratocumulus – large, dark, rounded cloud masses at low level, usually in groups, lines, or waves. Possible precipitation.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Arcus – a low, horizontal cloud formation, usually an accessory to a cumulonimbus. Includes Roll Clouds and Shelf Clouds. Usually appears along the leading edge of Thunderstorm outflows.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Asperitas Clouds – low-lying clouds caused by weather fronts with undulating atmospheric waves of varying illumination and thickness, creating a dark and dramatic cloud cover.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Fallstreak Hole / Cavum / Skypunch – a large gap, circular or elliptical, appearing in a cirrocumulus or altocumulus cloud. Forms due to a special evaporation around ice crystals.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Funnel Cloud – a funnel-shaped cloud of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud, but not reaching the ground or a water surface. Can become a Tornado.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Lenticular Clouds – stationary, lens-shaped clouds, singular or stacked, commonly found where mountains obstruct airflow, creating zones of turbulence. Stratocumulus, altocumulus, or cirrocumulus.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Mammatus Clouds – clouds featuring a protruding shape or elongated tube hanging from a cloud. Formed from turbulence within stormclouds. Associated with thunderstorms.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Pyrocumulus Cloud / Flammagenitus – a dense cumuliform cloud associated with fire or volcanic eruptions, sometimes producing dry lightning. Related to Volcanic Lightning.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Cyclone – a large, rotating storm resulting from the rapid movement of air around a low-pressure center. Often accompanied by other destructive weather.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Derecho – a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm associated with land-based, fast-moving groups of severe thunderstorms.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Dust Devil – a small, localized updraft of rising air.
[Omens, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Dust Storms – severe weather featuring strong winds which distribute dust-filled air (thinner than sand) over an extensive area, launching high and far and dispersing slowly. Dust Storms have several variations by season, including Haboobs.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Haboobs – large, high, and dense Dust Storms produced by downbursts in severe thunderstorms during seasonal monsoons, creating a blast that can lift dust nearly a mile high, move swiftly, and cover massive areas.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Gale – a strong sustained wind.
[Omens, Battlegrounds]

Microburst – a powerful, dry or wet downdraft windstorm produced during a thunderstorm lasting only seconds or a few minutes, but able to knock over trees. Occurs when the rain and hail core of a thunderstorm plummets to the ground after the updraft weakens from evaporative cooling.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Monsoon – a seasonal wind blowing one direction part of the year, and the opposite direction the other part. Often one direction brings nearly constant rain. Associated with Haboob and Monsoon Desert.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Sandstorms – particles of sand particles (thicker than dust) carried aloft by strong winds and falling out of the air quickly, usually ranging from 10-50 feet above ground.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Squall – the higher sustained wind speed following a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed longer than a gust, usually occurring during precipitation. Forms around strong sinking air or mid-atmosphere cooling.
[Omens, Battlegrounds]

Tornado / Twister – a violently destructive, rotating whirlwind storm with extreme strength, usually appearing on land as a dark funnel cloud touching down. Forms as warm air and cool air converge, creating a rotating wall cloud.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Waterspout – an intense columnar vortex, often a funnel-shaped cloud, occurring over a body of water.
[Omens, Passageways]

Tropical Cyclone / Hurricane / Typhoon – a colossal and rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain. Includes hurricanes, typhoons, tropical storms, cyclonic storms, tropical depressions, and cyclones.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Hypercane – a hypothetical Tropical Cyclone forming over extremely hot ocean following a catastrophic asteroid or comet impact, surface or sub-sea supervolcanic eruption, or global warming, leading to an astonishing storm with 500+ mph (800+ km/h) winds.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Volcanic Ash – tiny fragments of pulverized rock, minerals, and volcanic glass created during volcanic eruptions. Forms as magma dissolves gases, which combust and then shatter the magma, propelling it into the atmosphere.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Whirlwind – a vertical rotating column of air. Forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow gradients.
[Omens, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Windstorm – a storm marked by high wind with little or no precipitation.
[Omens, Battlegrounds]

Drought – a prolonged shortage in regional water supply, whether precipitation, surface water, or groundwater, often with significant impact on wildlife and cultures. Often worsened by Heat Wave, and can fuel Wildfires.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Firestorm – conflagrations with such intensity that they create and sustain their own wind systems. Can arise from extreme Wildfires.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Fire Whirl – a spinning tower of intense flames, where eddies contract into a tornado-like vortex. Can arise from wildfires and extreme drought.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Heat Wave – a period of excessively hot regional weather, often accompanied by either higher humidity or dryness.
[Settlements, Omens]

Wildfire / Bushfire / Forest Fire – an uncontrolled fire in a wilderness or rural area with lots of combustible vegetation, such as subterranean roots and duff, leaf and timber litter or dry grasses, vines and tree canopies. Can create Snag Forests, and turn into Firestorms.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Cold Wave / Cold Snap / Cold Spell – a period of excessively cold regional weather, often accompanied by unexpected freezes and frosts. Counterintuitively, they can lead to later Wildfires due to cold-killed vegetation.
[Settlements, Omens]

Fog – a mass of low-lying clouds, often limiting vision. Forms as water vapor condenses into tiny liquid water droplets suspended in the air, through various means. Includes fogbanks seen from a distance. Denser than Mist.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Freezing Fog / Pogonip – fog which deposits rime ice.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Ice Fog – fog consisting of fine ice crystals suspended in the air, in colder regions
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Mist – a mass of low-lying water vapor in the air or on the ground, often limiting visibility, but quick to dissipate. Lighter than Fog.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Sea Smoke – columns of warm, rising vapor from the water below colder air on the sea.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Blizzard – a severe snowstorm with strong sustained winds and lasting for a prolonged period. Also includes “ground blizzard”, where wind picks up loose ground snow. Can lead to whiteout, with no visible horizon.
[Omens, Abyss]

Hailstorm – any storm which produces hail, round chunks of ice ranging from microscopic to stone-sized, which fall from the sky, often destructively.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Ice Storm / Glaze Event / Silver Thaw – storms where falling rain or snow freeze on contact, forming layers of ice wherever they land, lasting for hours or days. Associated with Rime and Hoarfrost. Much more gentle than Blizzards.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Rainstorm – any storm producing rain. Ranges from intermittent sprinkles and drizzles to showers and downpours and torrential rains.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Sleet Storm – any storm producing sleet: partially frozen rain, or rain mixed with snow, manifesting as ice pellets smaller than hailstones.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Snowstorm – a storm which produces snow, i.e. ice crystals which collect wherever they land and remain frozen. Can become Blizzards.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Thunderstorm – a storm which produces lightning or thunder, often accompanied by strong wind, heavy rain, and sometimes snow, sleet, or hail, though sometimes little or no precipitation too. Thunderstorms may line up together. Can become many other forms of dangerous storms, including Supercells. Dry thunderstorms’ lightning can cause Wildfires, whereas wet ones can cause Floods. Results from rapid upward movement of warm, moist air, such as along a front, forming a cumulonimbus cloud which condenses and collides as droplets fall, creating a downdraft.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Ball Lightning – a rare spherical bolt of lightning.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Cloud-to-Cloud Lightning – lightning discharges from one cloud to another or within a single cloud, without contacting the ground or other objects. Includes sheet lightning and anvil crawler subtypes.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Cloud-to-Ground Lightning – a lightning discharge between a thundercloud and the ground, manifesting as a flash and strike. Includes forked, ribbon, and staccato lightning subtypes.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Ground-to-Cloud Lightning – a lightning flash shooting upward from the top of a grounded object, whether triggered by a preceding lightning flash or initiated on its own. Associated with Thundersnow.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Catatumbo Lightning – a rare landscape intersection of rivermouth, lake, bog, mountains, and enclosed plains, bearing nearly constant lightning for nearly half the day and year, including pulses up to hundreds of times per hour. Results as winds blowing across water trap heat and moisture along a wet plain enclosed on three sides against mountains, creating electrical charges which combine with destabilized air mass to produce frequent lightning.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Supercell – a massive thunderstorm with strong, persistent updraft, which can cause extreme damage.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Thundersnow – a thunderstorm, but with snow instead of rain (and sometimes hail), and a low top for the thunderhead cloud. Features uncommonly positive polarity lightning, which can cause greater damage. Often part of a Blizzard, with fierce winds, extreme cold, and low visibility.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Volcanic Lightning – when lightning appears inside a cloud of volcanic ash. Related to Flammagenitus.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Various short-lived upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated specifically with thunderstorms.

Blue Starter / Bluejet – an upward moving luminous phenomena manifesting as expanding disk-shaped regions of luminosity lasting small fractions of a second which occur high above energetic Cloud-to-Ground lightning over hail. Blue Starters manifest as shorter but brighter.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Gnomes – a different manifestation of a Blue Starter, manifesting in a more compact shape above convective domes.
[Omens, Overlooks]

ELVES – “Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources”. They appear as a dim, flattened, expanding reddish glow lasting for a tiny fraction of a second in the ionosphere above thunderstorms. Occurs due to the excitation of nitrogen molecules due to EMP-energized electron collisions.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Gigantic Jet – a carrot-shaped red Sprite shooting upward from the core of an oceanic Thunderstorm.
[Omens, Overlooks]

TROLL / Sprite Tendrils – “Transient Red Optical Luminous Lineament”. Red tendrils resembling Bluejets, occuring after tendrils of vigorous sprites extend downward toward cloud tops.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Sprite / Red Sprite – a luminous red-orange electrical discharge occuring high above the cumulonimbus cloud of an active thunderstorm. Can have a preceding, diffuse, disk-shaped halo.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Avalanche / Snowslide – when a cohesive slab of snow on a weaker layer fractures and slides down a steep slope, accelerating rapidly into a massive impact.
[Omens, Abyss]

Flood – an overflow of water submerging normally dry land, usually from excess precipitation, or from glacial melt. Often very destructive. Includes quick-forming flash floods.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Landslide – a variety of mass wasting ground movements, including rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Primarily caused by gravity and slope instability.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Lava Flow – an outpouring of molten rock during a non-explosive effusive eruption. Creates igneous rocks.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Mudslide / Mudflow – a form of mass wasting based on rapid surging flow of debris liquified by water. Mixed in clay allows them to travel far horizontally, across lower slope angles.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

I hope you enjoyed this sixteenth entry in my Mythic Ecology series! I look forward to continuing with it, I have some greater ambitions for developing this series into worldbuilding web tools. Give this a share if you liked it, and let me know in the comments if you have any feedback. I publish new posts on alternating Tuesdays. In the meantime, I post D&D memes and writing updates over on my site’s Facebook Page. Also, if you want to keep up-to-date on all my posts, check out my Newsletter Sign-Up to receive email notifications when I release new posts. A big thanks as always to my Patrons on Patreon, helping keep this project going: Adam, Alexander, Anthony, Benjamin, Chris, Eric & Jones, Evan, Geoff, Jason, KRR, Rudy, and Tom. Thanks for your support!