Inclement Weather and Natural Disasters

[FifthView]

So in a different thread recently someone mentioned tornados, and I realized I have never, that I can remember, encountered a tornado in any fantasy world from the books I've read. I never read Wizard of Oz so...

Maybe I have encountered cyclones (at sea). Maybe some severe weather caused by magic users or magical events.

But naturally occurring tornados? Nope.

This made me think of the way weather is incorporated into the presentation of a world.

Heavy rain and its antithesis, droughts, seem to be the most common use of naturally occurring inclement weather in fantasy novels. Thunderstorms, lightning, high winds.

Next would be snow storms and blizzards.

And that's about it. Hurricanes and typhoons? Monsoons? Severe ice storms? (Yes, rarely, when a land particularly prone to such is also in the fantasy world and plays a role in the story.)

As for natural disasters, earthquakes seem to be far more popular than tsunamis. (I read one horrible indie book that had a character who could control water losing it when his lover was in danger, so he created a tsunami. I don't really count this instance; it was so ridiculous.)

We have one well-known instance of a volcano, and I think I vaguely remember volcanos being mentioned a time or two in other novels.

Meteor strikes? Yes, usually as some sort of magical event.

Naturally (heh) the thing about the severest weather events and most natural disasters is that they are rare. I myself have never witnessed a tornado first hand, and never a hurricane or volcano or tsunami, although I have experienced a severe earthquake. Plus, the worst of these could greatly affect a story if the characters are thrown in the middle of one of the events.

But although I've never witnessed many of these myself, I know they happen in the world. I hear the stories. Tornados happen every year in "lands" near me, sometimes only a matter of 10-15 miles away. Wouldn't characters in a novel also be aware of these things, hear stories about them? Wouldn't events like these have shaped the history of a land, if only just a bit?

 

[Ireth]

I've been pondering something alone these lines for a little while now. I'm rereading the Redwall series (which, incidentally, may or may not be one of the series you've seen a volcano in -- albeit a long-extinct one), which takes place primarily in and around a forest over multiple generations, and I've come to notice that not once is there any sort of forest fire. Neither in the book's plots or mentioned as having happened between books. There's one season mentioned in backstory as the Summer of the Big Drought, which seems like a fire just waiting to happen, but nope. Nothing. And it bothers me now that I've noticed it. I'm half-tempted to write a fanfic where a forest fire happens. (No use petitioning the author for a book about it, as he's been dead for five and a half years, and no one is continuing the series.)

 

[SaltyDog]

I would read the Red wall Fanfic, as I really enjoyed the series and would defiantly like to see more in that world. As with the forest fires, I haven't seen any in anything I have read, and the same with tornadoes. Funny, I've never even considered putting them in my books. Must be a theme, I guess, for writers not use them, lol. I do have a giant winter storm, but so far that's been the worst of my natural disasters, for now at least.

 

[FifthView]

Forest fires had flitted through my mind, then I started thinking about how many in our world are caused by human stupidity, and in fantasy worlds there are fires that result from warfare and such. Or dragons.

But yeah, they can be caused by lightning strikes also. So the unexpected forest fire could be quite interesting, even if you are dealing only with political intrigue and such (crops being threatened if it spreads, villages threatened, demands for aid, etc.)

Edit: Incidentally, I've read the Redwall books but it's been so long I don't remember them as clearly.

And the dim memories I have of forests burning in other stories are localized events, not broadly occurring and wild forest fires. Trees catching on fire but not really "forest fires" as such.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Hmm, I've never thought about this...

My book takes place in the tropics, so seasonal cycles of drought and torrential rain are the norm. I'm also assuming there are dangerous storms and hurricanes arising over the oceans. Beyond that which affects my plot, I haven't thought much about weather.

The reason tornadoes are so absent is probably that their destruction is extremely localized. In what situation would a tornado be relevant to the plot? Having your heroes be threatened by a tornado would seem like a freak incident, since so few of us have had our lives directly affected by a tornado. We've all seen the effects of flooding and drought and blizzards firsthand, but tornadoes don't affect as many people.

 

[FifthView]

The reason tornadoes are so absent is probably that their destruction is extremely localized. In what situation would a tornado be relevant to the plot? Having your heroes be threatened by a tornado would seem like a freak incident, since so few of us have had our lives directly affected by a tornado. We've all seen the effects of flooding and drought and blizzards firsthand, but tornadoes don't affect as many people.

I'd agree that inserting a tornado in the path of your main plot, including your characters, would seem like a freak incident and heavy-handed.

I do think that mentioning characters feeling light tremors (earthquakes) could be fine in novels if the location is right. But tornados...?

But I'm a little more interested in using these things for world building. Mentioning severe weather and natural disasters happening in your world, whether in the present or as historical events.

So depending on the novel, you could have mention of a grain supply and fortifications being destroyed by a tornado for an outpost far from the action of the main plot—i.e., maybe it's just something else for a ruler to worry about, something he reads in a report he receives.

Also I'm imagining the effect on Rome of hearing about Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Things like that.

Edit: Plus, I wonder to what degree these things might affect the personal narratives of characters living in the world, even side characters and so forth. Although I've never witnessed a tornado first hand, there are many local stories about various tornados. So I could see a group of MCs encountering such tales as they travel. Maybe it's just a backstory of an incidental character, someone who lost a child and husband to a tornado. The one thing I worry about is the way some natural disasters might be mythologized—they are acts of god or of gods, etc. So even using these things to give the world some depth, the "naturalness" might not come through. Of course this would depend on the novel.

Edit#2: Also, not that I'm not interested in the ways these things could be worked into a main plot or affect the paths characters take. Mostly the absence of these things is something I've noticed, brought to mind because of the mention of tornados.

 

[Saigonnus]

I concur. Too many novels read and not many natural disasters.

I recall an R.A. Salvatore that had a forest fire... At least I think it was his. He used it as a plot device to obstruct the good guys from reaching the destination quickly. Besides that, the only others I can think of are magical constructs, not naturally occuring events. Rand Al'Thor causing a lightning storm that covers a square mile is an example that comes to mind.

I just wonder if this phenomenon is simply because authors themselves have no frame of reference; having never experienced one first-hand. I could write about earthquakes, having lived through a couple major ones, but beyond guesses, supposition, I probably couldn't do justice to a class 5 twister. I could write credibly about a monsoon, which are fairly common here where I live, but a blizzard? Perhaps not as well.


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[DragonOfTheAerie]

I'd agree that inserting a tornado in the path of your main plot, including your characters, would seem like a freak incident and heavy-handed.

I do think that mentioning characters feeling light tremors (earthquakes) could be fine in novels if the location is right. But tornados...?

But I'm a little more interested in using these things for world building. Mentioning severe weather and natural disasters happening in your world, whether in the present or as historical events.

So depending on the novel, you could have mention of a grain supply and fortifications being destroyed by a tornado for an outpost far from the action of the main plot—i.e., maybe it's just something else for a ruler to worry about, something he reads in a report he receives.

Also I'm imagining the effect on Rome of hearing about Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Things like that.

Edit: Plus, I wonder to what degree these things might affect the personal narratives of characters living in the world, even side characters and so forth. Although I've never witnessed a tornado first hand, there are many local stories about various tornados. So I could see a group of MCs encountering such tales as they travel. Maybe it's just a backstory of an incidental character, someone who lost a child and husband to a tornado. The one thing I worry about is the way some natural disasters might be mythologized—they are acts of god or of gods, etc. So even using these things to give the world some depth, the "naturalness" might not come through. Of course this would depend on the novel.

Edit#2: Also, not that I'm not interested in the ways these things could be worked into a main plot or affect the paths characters take. Mostly the absence of these things is something I've noticed, brought to mind because of the mention of tornados.

Tornados do affect my life in that we're scared of them, we all know about the damage they can cause, and we head to the basement whenever there's a tornado warning...I do remember a very terrifying time many years ago when the weather radio was going off every five minutes during a thunderstorm. One tornado warning after another.

But, aside from large and devastating events like hurricanes, or natural seasonal weather that shapes the characters' lives and cultures, I doubt weather will affect the plot and characters in any significant way. It's likely to be extraneous.

 

[SaltyDog]

Hmm, I've never thought about this...

My book takes place in the tropics, so seasonal cycles of drought and torrential rain are the norm. I'm also assuming there are dangerous storms and hurricanes arising over the oceans. Beyond that which affects my plot, I haven't thought much about weather.


The reason tornadoes are so absent is probably that their destruction is extremely localized. In what situation would a tornado be relevant to the plot? Having your heroes be threatened by a tornado would seem like a freak incident, since so few of us have had our lives directly affected by a tornado. We've all seen the effects of flooding and drought and blizzards firsthand, but tornadoes don't affect as many people.

Very true DotA, or it would seem a cheap way of putting excitement into the story. Where I live, we see no tornadoes, or even any winter storms, so to me why would I include it in my story? A drought or flash flood are much more reasonable and I would use them before a tornado.

 

[FifthView]

Tornados do affect my life in that we're scared of them, we all know about the damage they can cause, and we head to the basement whenever there's a tornado warning...I do remember a very terrifying time many years ago when the weather radio was going off every five minutes during a thunderstorm. One tornado warning after another.

But, aside from large and devastating events like hurricanes, or natural seasonal weather that shapes the characters' lives and cultures, I doubt weather will affect the plot and characters in any significant way. It's likely to be extraneous.

I certainly think that different types of events will have different meaning for characters depending on their location within the world. It's not uncommon for people who live on fault lines to be experienced in feeling tremors, for instance. Even if no serious earthquake happens in the timeframe of a novel, the fact that these characters would have lived their entire lives in the area would mean that they have experience of tremors and probably earthquakes.

There is a greater incidence of tornadoes than you might think.

The little gray squiggly lines show tornado tracks for narrowing down location within these states.

Again, people who have lived their entire lives in these regions will probably have experienced the effects of tornadoes or at least will have knowledge of the potential for tornadoes when they see the horizon darkening in the right way, the winds picking up, and lightning in the distance. Surely stories about historic tornadoes will have been told.

But then, we seem to have a "Shire effect" shaping stories. The idyllic lands where, sure, thunderstorms and snowstorms might happen if the season is right but otherwise nothing much of significance happens until the Dark Lord or some equivalent sends invaders. (Not to mention that many of the temperate-zone lands seem modeled on Europe rather than U.S. plains/Midwest areas. Of course, Europe has tornadoes too; but meh!)

I'm not arguing that these things absolutely must be put in every novel. I'm just curious about their absence. A similar absence might be the absence of disease, plagues, and so forth in fantasies set in a medieval-ish milieu.

Or, swarms of locusts, which, come to think of it, I'll add to the list. Maybe other types of crop blight could be added.

 

[FifthView]

I just wonder if this phenomenon is simply because authors themselves have no frame of reference; having never experienced one first-hand. I could write about earthquakes, having lived through a couple major ones, but beyond guesses, supposition, I probably couldn't do justice to a class 5 twister. I could write credibly about a monsoon, which are fairly common here where I live, but a blizzard? Perhaps not as well.

Over the last 24 hours, I've been wondering if I could write credibly about a tornado without using the name tornado (or twister) and without giving a clichéd type of description. I've wondered how people in earlier times characterized tornadoes. Maybe if they happened so fast, the people would have thought some god had smashed his hammer into their rickety homes. It's a curious question; I've never needed to write about a tornado set in such a world.

 

[Saigonnus]

Over the last 24 hours, I've been wondering if I could write credibly about a tornado without using the name tornado (or twister) and without giving a clichéd type of description. I've wondered how people in earlier times characterized tornadoes.

Perhaps consider making up your own name for them, plainly they haven't always been called as such. "Ushwar's Eye" or Death's Finger or something like that but give the description so the read can surmise what it is without using the word tornado.

As for desciptive elements, I personally would use some of the more ridiculous aspects of a tornado to describe it.

The wind was deafening in its fury, the hummock of rock and dirt only protection against the twigs, gravel and even farming implements thrown violently past their heads to impact a rock wall behind. The air flails at their cloaks, which they pull tight around them lest they choke, or fly into the wind like the cow that floats almost comically past their disbelieving eyes.


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[FifthView]

Perhaps consider making up your own name for them, plainly they haven't always been called as such. "Ushwar's Eye" or Death's Finger or something like that but give the description so the read can surmise what it is without using the word tornado.

As for desciptive elements, I personally would use some of the more ridiculous aspects of a tornado to describe it.

The wind was deafening in its fury, the hummock of rock and dirt only protection against the twigs, gravel and even farming implements thrown violently past their heads to impact a rock wall behind. The air flails at their cloaks, which they pull tight around them lest they choke, or fly into the wind like the cow that floats almost comically past their disbelieving eyes.

Here I was thinking of funnel clouds. I love the idea of using funnels as a metaphor, but it's become cliché in our own world so I started wondering about other items that could be used for comparison—unsuccessfully so far.

If the mythology of the world would permit it, I could see using something like a wind god striding across the land. Or, as you say, Ushwar's Eye or some other association.

I do think that more down to earth (!) descriptive elements would work great too.

 

[FifthView]

Suddenly, the leader of the party shouted for the men to dismount and prepare for a hard rain. Soon, too, with the approaching cloud, Iseeo recalled hearing a “roar that sounded like buffalo in the rutting season.” Sloping down from the cloud a sleeve appeared, its center red; from this lightning shot out. The tremendous funnel tore through the timber bordering the Washita, heaving trees into the air.

Some of the young men wanted to run away, but the older, more experienced Kiowas knew what must be done. They called for everyone to try hard and brace themselves. The elders drew their pipes from saddlebags and lit them. They raised their pipes to the storm spirit, entreating it to smoke, and to go around them. The cloud heard their prayers, Iseeo explained, and passed by.

The war party later surveyed the destruction wrought by the storm. Iseeo discovered that the squirming black dots which had caught his attention during the frightful wind had been buffalo wrenched up into the vortex. Trees and rocks lay twisted and shattered on the ground. Even the grass which had been in the storm's path was sucked up into the cloud, the earth left bare. Iseeo told Nye that the storm was the great medicine horse called Mánkayía.

—from "Mánkayía and the Kiowa Indians: Survival, Myth and the Tornado," Michael J. Marchand​

_____

In ‘‘Annales Gradicenses et Opatovicenses‘‘ (Emler, 1875) is the following record:

In the year 1144, twice Ides of May, namely on the day of Pentecost, unheard of in our time a horrible portent [monstrum] appeared near the encampment of the duke Otto, while along with many others of the nobility and also the multitude of the lower classes looking on. About midday during a great calm, a dark column was seen by many of the aforementioned people ascending from the earth to the top of the clouds, in whose force it was rotating with the circuit of a whirlwind. Whenever it tried to reach the aforementioned place, a triangular sign of very great brightness was seen from the height of the sky and to meet itself with wonderful acuity, which with the unnatural portent crossed to the very depths of the earth. However after an interval of almost one hour another column darker and with stronger force of a whirlwind was seen in the same manner to raise itself from the earth, against which again in the same manner in the most bright region, in whose center was seen appearing the sign of the holy cross, it bored with astonishing speed and drove into the very surface of the earth. Whenever some soldiers boldly had come to contemplate the cause, they departed, for they could not look on the matter of such a portent, with sand and little pebbles blowing in their faces and uprooted trunks hindering the keenness of their eyes.

—from "Tornadoes within the Czech Republic: from early medieval chronicles to the 'internet society,'" by Martin Setvák, Milan ŠÃ¡lek, and Jan Munzar​

A note after the Czech tale asserts that it may be the first written account of "storm chasers" in history.

Fascinating stuff!

 

[Creed]

Considering just how much of an impact weather had/has on life around the world, it is kind of strange that we don't read more of it in fantasy. In my opinion it is also a huge opportunity missed to add vivid detail, or show off some insider knowledge (that insider knowledge can really make a story pop).

Check out ergotism, a crazy interesting side-effect from too damp conditions. I've always known what ergot was, but not what it could do if ingested... Now in a WIP some characters are going to encounter people who suffer from ergotism as they travel through the countryside. I started building the whole nation on the concept of just how plague-ridden the area is and how the population is well acquainted with death.
(Similar effects come from eating tulip bulbs, which the Dutch were forced to eat during the winter of 1944-45. I made a note to incorporate that somewhere as well.)