Unusual Weather Patterns

Weather on Gilon for the most part is the same as weather elsewhere, but the influence of magic, pollutants and other factors can lead to some particularly unusual weather patterns. Below are a few that have been known to happen.

• Acid Rain - While acid rain is not unheard of in many worlds, when acid rain falls in Gilon, it is particularly problematic due to it's high PH level. Most cities are built with acid resistant materials and there are a range of protective clothing out there that can serve to keep you safe if you are caught outside. However, for those who are caught unawares, damage can be extremely severe and possibly deadly.  
  
  
• Animal Rain - A relatively rare occurrence, there have been storms that consist entirely of live animals. Frogs and fish are the most common, which are believed to have been siphoned into the sky by a tornado or other similar weather occurrence and later dropped miles away. There is at least one unexplained case in which countless cats and dogs rained from the heavens, leading to the idiom of the same name.
  
  
• Astral Wind - These winds bring with them the souls of the dead from whatever plane they may be resting upon. During these events, ghosts of the dead haunt the world wherever they blow. However, there is no known means of communicating with these ghosts, leading many to wonder if the winds truly bring the dead back for a short time, or if it is merely a temporal afterimage of a time when those people were once alive.
  
  
• Clockwork Clouds - Clouds shaped like gears spin slowly overhead, sometimes interlocking with other clouds to form complex clockworks.
  
  
• Color Storm - Everything caught within one randomly changes colors into a variety of vibrant hues. The precise colors seem to be dependent on the season, with autumn storms changing things red, yellow and orange, winter storms changing things shades of black and white, spring storms changing things to various pastels, and summer changing things to brilliant shades of green. The color change is not permanent and fades back to normal after a few days.
  
  
• Freeze Fog - While this appears to be a normal fog bank, anything enveloped by said fog enters a temporary temporal stasis, freezing them in time until the fog clears. Those caught within the fog have no sense of time passing at all and it seems to them as though the world around them has suddenly advanced without them.
  
  
• Glowclouds - clouds in the sky glow as brightly as daylight. During the day, the glare is atrocious. During the night, it is a bright as normal day.
  
  
• Gravity swells - Swirls of gravitational energy pass through an area, causing fluctuations in the gravitational pull of everything in the area. This can result in extreme increases or decreases in apparent weight. Gravity swells are particularly common in Victoria, where liftwood trees absorb this energy and is responsible for the signature floating property of their lumber.
  
  
• Illusory Storm - While the sky seems to be raging with a normal thunderstorm, nothing actually gets wet because it's all some strange illusion.
  
  
• Incendiary clouds - Clouds made of roiling embers and smoke roll through the sky, filling the air with a eerie black and orange color. While rarely dangerous to people on the ground, they can be a fire hazard to airships that might pass through them.  
  
  
• Incorporeal Wind - These strange winds pass through solid objects as if they weren't there. Since the winds don't touch objects, it can look like no wind is blowing at all. However, people are able to feel the winds despite shelter and clothing. While this can have a pleasant cooling effect in the summer, it is horrifically chilling in the winter. Submerging oneself in water is the cheapest known way to escape the effect, so it is common to soak in a hot bath during cold winter days of incorporeal wind. Alternately, an astral barrier will do the trick as well, but is a much pricier option.
  
  
• Mad Sky - On very rare occasion, the walls between planes grow extremely thin and people become able to see images in the sky of horrifying sights that the mortal mind was not meant to see. Those who gaze upon it have a chance of going completely mad, leaving them in a catatonic state. Luckily this madness eventually passes, but forever stains the soul, robbing the victim of essence. Luckily, mages have long discovered how to precisely predict when such occasions occur and most businesses simply shut down on these days so as not to risk gazing at the sky.
  
  
• Mana Surge - Sudden surges in mana make spells particularly unpredictable. When a spell is cast, double it's force if the sorcery check has an odd number of hits. Halve it's force if it has an even number of hits.
  
  
• Psychic storm - A sort of electric feeling fills the air and suddenly all minds are linked. You suddenly hear the thoughts of people throughout the storm's influence, though there is no real way of knowing specifically whose thoughts you are hearing. Like any storm, one can avoid the effects simply by staying inside until it passes.
  
  
• Reverse Rain - Much like a normal rain storm, but backwards. Moisture in the area is wicked up into the atmosphere, where it rapidly forms clouds. This is much more extreme than normal evaporation as whole droplets of water rise into the sky instead of merely water vapor. In the case of rivers and other large bodies of water, whole sheets of water rise to the sky at a time. Conditions become extremely dry and can be dangerous on hot days as perspiration is much less effective at cooling the body, and drought becomes a rapid issue.
  
  
• Skyquake - Violent shockwaves suddenly tear through the sky, causing it to crack and clouds to be torn apart and scattered. The noise is loud and irritating, but harmless to those on the ground. A sudden skyquake can wreak havoc on flight systems and often knocks birds out of the sky.
  
  
• Spirit Storm - Caused by sudden fluctuations between the planes, a spirit storm is both as brief as it is violent. Lasting usually no more than a minute or two, astral gateways open at random and spirits are pulled through to the physical plane. Spirits pulled to the physical plane in this manner are filled with a madness that forces them to lash out at everything in sight. Luckily this madness passes as soon as the storm does and such spirits are content simply returning to where they came from
  
  
• Static clouds - Otherwise normal looking clouds in the sky glitch and twitch like static on a TV screen. An accompanying hissing sound also happens, the sound of which depends on the size of the clouds. Small clouds may be barely audible from the ground while a heavily cloudy day can fill the air with a massive cacophonous hiss.  
  
  
• Telecambitation Storm - Somewhat of a hassle in daily life, a telecambitation storm consists of streaks of purple mana bolts that fall from the sky. These bolts always fall in pairs, though the pairs can be miles apart from one another and many such pairs may fall during the course of a single storm. When both bolts manage to strike a non-living object, those objects instantly switch places. Fortunately, the bolts don't seem to affect living beings, nor any objects that are larger than about a cubic meter of volume so buildings and people don't typically have to worry about being swapped around. But it can be annoying to find your bicycle has been replaced by a random briefcase.
  
  
• Transmutation Storm - Similar to telecambitation storms, transmutation storms consist of streaks of mana bolts that fall from the sky. However, these mana bolts are green and do not fall in pairs. Whenever they strike an object, the object is transformed into another object. Luckily, like telecambitation storms, transmutation storms never affect living beings or objects larger than about a cubic meter of volume. However, that is of little comfort if your fancy new commlink is suddenly transformed into a chicken sandwich.  
  
  
• Whispering wind - It is not unusual for wind to howl through the trees, particularly when it is strong. However, this particular type of wind somehow picks up sounds from one area and deposits them elsewhere. During whispering wind storms, it is common to hear snippets of conversations that may be happening miles away from you. Luckily staying indoors and away from the wind is all one needs to do to avoid having their private conversations accidentally overheard during one of these storms.