"Zeus stabs the sky with thunderbolts...and batters the Persian ships with hurricane winds. Glorious."
"You dumb motherfucker! Didn't Napoleon let you know?
When you conquer Russia, better pack some fuckin' winter clothes!"
When you conquer Russia, better pack some fuckin' winter clothes!"
— Darth Vader, Epic Rap Battles of History, on his rival Adolf Hitler's ill-fated campaign in Russia
Weather frequently affects the outcome of battles. Rainstorms, blizzards, extreme cold, sandstorms, etc. can have a big impact on strategy; it can be used to great effect by the better-prepared force — or everyone can get screwed over by it. "And then everybody on the temporarily victorious side suffered exposure" is a common form of Pyrrhic Victory. (It's also a quick summary of Russian military history.) Heavy precipitation or extreme temperatures can play merry hell with campaigning or crop production, and heaven help you if your world has Weird Weather or unnatural things falling from the clouds.
In video games, these conditions are part of a Weather Gameplay Mechanic and likely to apply things such as movement penalties and reduced visibility. For extreme weather, it may damage and even kill units. In strategy games, seasons may also cycle in and out and cause different gameplay effects, such as winter hindering population growth or troop movement. In other media, and perhaps even more commonly in real life, it shows up in more complicated and often painful ways.
Because it's such a common trope, there are a boatload of super- and sub-tropes and related tropes. Winter Warfare is perhaps the most common manifestation of this. See also:
- Battle in the Rain: For more than atmospherics.
- Geo Effects: For other environmental impacts.
- Hazard Attack: For when weather can cause lingering damage.
- Fog of War: For visibility-reducing conditions.
- Protection from the Elements: For defenses against the weather.
- Weather-Control Machine: For devices and techniques used in manipulating the weather for this.
- Weather Gameplay Mechanic: When weather affects gameplay not just in battles.
- Weather Manipulation: For people with superpower used in manipulating the weather for this.
- Weather Saves the Day: When a sudden change in the weather saves the heroes.
- Winter Warfare: For warfare in the depths of the cold seasons.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Girls und Panzer: The semi-final round of the Tankery tournament takes place in a howling snowstorm. Oarai team faces the Soviet Russia themed Pravda Academy tank forces on a battlefield where Gen. Winter holds sway.
- One Piece:
- Nami, even before she got her Weather-Control Machine, had such an intuitive understanding of the weather that she could use it offensively, avoiding storms to which others would fall prey.
- From One Piece Chapter 0, which detailed the backstory of various characters, there's the battle of Edd Wars between future Pirate King Gold Roger and Shiki the Golden Lion. Roger had only one ship, his trusted Oro Jackson, but managed to defeat Shiki's 50-ship armada thanks to an unexpected storm ravaging most of them. Some interpreted this as the Heavens' will that foreshadowed Roger's eventual ascension to the title of King of the Pirates.
Fan Works
- The Heritage of Sannikov Land: "On the Roads of Air" has two battles affected by weather — in different sides' favor.
- Petya suspects the low clouds and the blizzard have aided him in shooting down the Junkers — it's possible the Nazi pilot couldn't see Petya's plane through the snow or became outright disoriented.
- Meanwhile, one of the key factors in Lida's death, several thousand miles to the south from Petya, is also the weather: Lida flies a low-altitude night bomber plane, and the moon shining through clouds is just about the worst you can get in that case, since it gives those on the ground a clear shot.
- The Kaskade Region is a fan-made Pokémon generation that heavily expands on the weather mechanics of the original games, introducing an effect for each Pokémon type. Weather effects are divided in three categories (climate effects, irritants that fill the air, and energy auras); only one effect from each category can be active at the same time, but multiple effects from different categories can co-exist. Then there's the special "Strong Winds" effect, connected to Flying-type Pokémon: activating it will wipe out all preexisting weather effects, but any effect applied after Strong Winds' activation will be temporarily boosted.
- The Lunar Rebellion:
- During the siege of Canterlot, the pegasus rebels create a permanent rainstorm over the city with the intention of flooding it, damaging infrastructure, and forcing its surrender. This has a side effect of causing drought in the land around it, since they had to take most of the local clouds to do this.
- Later in the war, the loyalists take advantage of this drought, which they strengthen by having Celestia intensify the the sun's light and by draining the remaining water, to immolate the last rebel army in one go by starting a wildfire with a tremendous fire spell.
- The Progenitor Chronicles: During the attack on Bear University, the MC notes the Hunters are more sluggish than he remembers from Terragrigia. Rebecca points out that Hunters are based on reptiles, which are cold-blooded, and the winter weather (it’s also nighttime) is slowing them down.
- Seasons and Holidays
, a Total War: Warhammer III game mod, adds seasonal cycles with various campaign map effects:
- In winter, attrition from cold climates is increased while attrition from tropical ones is decreased, campaign movement takes a general malus, the cold-blooded Lizardmen weaken and grow sluggish, and the Kislevites are strengthened during the season of ice and cold.
- In spring, all factions receive a bonus to growth and public order, the Wood Elves wax strong as the wheel of seasons enters its upward cycle, and Slaanesh gorges on the season of love and fertility.
- In summer, attrition from cold climates is decreased while attrition from tropical ones is increased, the Lizardmen reach the peak of their strength, the Tomb Kings have increased magic reserves during their sun god's strongest time, and Khorne grows strong as high temperatures shorten the tempers of mortals.
- In autumn, storm attrition is increased on the seas, the Wood Elves weaken as the seasons wane, the vampires are strengthened in the season of fear and death, and Nurgle waxes strong as decay reaches its highest point in the year.
Films — Live-Action
- 300: The Spartans reach the Hot Gates and see the amassed Persian fleet. That night, an enormous storm tears through the fleet while all the Spartans, save Leonidas, cheer.
- American Sniper: A huge sandstorm foils the attempt to call in a missile strike on the position held by Kyle and his fellow SEALs but also provides enough cover for the SEALs to escape the firefight.
- Excalibur (1981): The dragon's breath created via magic, most notably in the final battle. Merlin tricks Morgana into raising the fog, concealing the paucity of King Arthur's force and the direction from which they are attacking.
- Last Sentinel (2023): Sentinel was built where the relief boat had just enough time between storms to get there and back, but far enough from Northland that the enemy doesn't have time to reach the sea fort before running into a storm. However it's pointed out that the weather has changed over forty years, so this might not still be the case.
- Mad Max: Fury Road. Imperator Furisoa takes her War Rig into a sandstorm that's a virtual tornado, to (temporarily) escape the pursuing War Boys. Given their Blood Knight nature not all of the pursuers are deterred, but as Furiosa's Big Badass Rig is heavier it survives while lighter vehicles are blown into the air and destroyed.
- Master and Commander. A fog conceals the French privateer before the first attack, but also saves HMS Surprise when Captain Aubrey orders his men to put out boats and tow them into it, knowing the French won't risk their advantage by following them.
- Napoléon (1927): Downplayed. When the drummers at Toulon have fallen, morale is kept up by hail beating the drums.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Invoked by the sea goddess Calypso at the ending battle between the pirates and the East India Company. The pirates release her hoping she'll aid them in the fight, but since she has good reason to hate both sides- the pirates' predecessors imprisoned her in the first place, and on the EIC's side Davy Jones betrayed her- she creates a tremendous storm and maelstrom between the two fleets.
- Twelve O'Clock High, in a bit of Truth in Television, is accurate in its portrayal of how weather conditions over Europe affected the planning of heavy-bomber missions. Bombing missions could not be flown in rain at all. Even in acceptable weather, navigators had to plan their courses and speeds around the predicted winds at various altitudes in order to keep the entire bomber force together and reach the target on schedule.
Jokes
- In the Soviet Union, a teacher asks the students: "Who can name a great strategist?"
Ivan: General Kutuzov.
Teacher: Yes, and what exactly did he do?
Ivan: He baited Napoleon to go as far as Moscow, waited until winter came, and defeated him.
Teacher: Very good. Another one?
Boris: Comrade Stalin.
Teacher: Yes, and what exactly did he do?
Boris: He baited Hitler to go as far as Stalingrad, waited until winter came, and defeated him.
Teacher: Very good. Another one?
Chaim: Egyptian president Nasser.
Teacher: Yes, and what exactly did he do?"
Chaim: He baited the Israelis to go as far as the Suez Canal, and now he's waiting until winter will come.
Literature
- 1635: The Eastern Front: A heavy rainstorm completely ruins the USE's invasion of Poland, taking away its technological advantages and nearly getting the emperor killed in battle.
- Cerberon: The Dragon Queen launches her attack after heavy rainstorms have saturated the ground, flooded underground tunnels, and raised the level of the Loethess river. This has the effect of making the devastating deluge she sends down the river even more effective.
- Dirigent Mercenary Corps: Inverted. When Lon Nolan is in the DMC's OCS program one of the lessons points out that large-scale battles with chemical firearms are actually known to produce bad weather after the second or third day or so because of the combustion byproducts and such.
- Dune: The sandstorms of Arrakis can grind any tribe or troop movement to a halt, and can be used to exhaust Deflector Shields with tons of sand "bullets".
- Fighting in Hell: Russia's General Winter is mentioned as expected, but also taking pride of place is Colonel Slush. During springtime, all the packed snow floods out over the steppes and in fall rains come pouring down to make Russia into one big swamp. This is even worse than winter in some ways; you can actually campaign in winter because the roads are hardened. You certainly can't do that when they are flooded. In summer it is scorching and desert-like. Russia is environmental Hell even before you start making the inhabitants mad at you.
- The Guild of Specialists: Pugachev intends to use Ur-Can by creating a massive storm that will disrupt Soviet agriculture and bring down the Bolsheviks.
- Halo: Battle Born: Meridian is stated to have heavy rain seasons, something which the ongoing battles are making worse. This turns out to be a significant plot point, as the heavier-than-usual rain puts the bomb shelter that Brume-sur-Mer's population is hiding in at risk of flooding, while the AI in charge of it refuses to do anything as it registers the Covenant as a greater threat.
- Heimskringla: During the naval battle of Hjörunga Bay, a hailstorm arises that is instrumental in turning the battle against the Jomsvikings and securing the Norwegians' victory.
- Horatio Hornblower: Since the series is set in the Age of Sail, the ships are wholly dependent on the weather for movement, and also hugely vulnerable to storms. A few of the more notable examples:
- Hornblower and the Hotspur: While on blockade duty off Brest, Hornblower has to intercept a French squadron that is trying to sneak out of the harbor during a nasty winter storm.
- Also in Hornblower and the Hotspur, Hotspur is driven off her station outside Brest by a powerful fall storm.
- In Beat to Quarters, stormy weather temporarily stops the battle between Hornblower's Lydia and the enemy Natividad. The next morning, before they can resume the fight they both have to deal with a complete absence of wind that leaves both ships unable to move.
- Throughout the series, whenever ships are in action on the open sea, they must consider the direction of the wind. Sailing ships generally had trouble sailing into the wind, so a situation where the wind was blowing the ship toward a threat — a stronger enemy, a coastline, etc. — was a Very Bad Thing.
- Isekai Cheat Magician: During the first battle in the capital, Wennifix, the royal mages cast a spell that creates a thunderstorm, muddying the ground so that lightning strikes, paralyzing the enemy mages.
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Strange makes it rain so that the mud will hinder French cavalry.
- The Lord of the Rings: When the Fellowship is trying to climb over a mountain pass, Saruman makes it snow so that they can't get over the mountain and have to go under it — or else the mountain itself calls down the storm to the same effect.
- Red Mars Trilogy: The Martians frequently practice "guerrilla climatology" such as seeding very prolific and efficient plants in an area to drive up the local oxygen concentration and then starting a wildfire.
- The Reynard Cycle: In The Baron of Maleperduys, Bruin mentions that it is raining the same way that it did before a battle he fought in, reminiscing that the soggy terrain bogged down the heavy cavalry. He personally witnessed one of the chevaliers drown in a pool of water. Sure enough, soft ground and a swollen river play a big role during the Battle of the Samara.
- The Saga of the Jomsvikings: At the climax, the Jomsvikings under Sigvaldi are fighting a naval battle against Jarl Hakon and his Norwegians, and it looks like the Jomsvikings are going to win. During a lull in the battle, Jarl Hakon sacrifices to the goddesses Thorgerd and Irpa and calls on them for victory. When the battle resumes, suddenly the sky casts over and a storm with thunder, lightning and heavy fall of hail arises. The wind is blowing into the faces of the Jomsvikings and is so strong so "that they could hardly stand up" and all their missiles are turned back on them "to join the shower of missiles from their enemies". Initially the Jomsvikings continue to fight as before, but when the storm gets even stronger after a while, Sigvaldi orders a retreat.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: In Westeros, seasons last for several years and can become extremely intense. Winters are particularly brutal, and the North can experience up to a decade of plunging temperatures and brutal snowstorms. For most Northerners, the onset of winter means that war and travel must be put on hold as everyone bunkers down to try and last until spring; Stannis and his army learn this the hard way when they try to campaign as they would in the south and end up finding their marching ground to a halt as they struggle through deep snowdrifts and bone-chilling winds — which are just late autumn weather up there. At sea, the onset of the long autumn also causes powerful storms that hinder merchant shipping. For the Others, another Long Winter is both a weapon and their home-field advantage in one package.
- Terra Ignota is the story of events in the 25th century leading up to World War III. Utopians, one of the factions, can easily be spotted by their coats made of Griffincloth that show each wearer's individual fantastical imagined world, be it ruins on the moon or a blooming swamp. With the world's leaders all assembled in one room, in strides Utopia's ambassador Huxley Mojave wearing a coat that shows a fierce thunderstorm and announces that Utopia has made the first move in the war everyone's been trying to prevent by rendering all nuclear weapons on Earth harmless for the duration of six months and kidnapping all scientists capable of recreating them. Now deal with it.
- Toaru Hikuushi e no Seiyaku: The Uranus fleet attacking Eahanto Island takes advantage of a hurricane to conceal themselves and launch a surprise attack.
- Watership Down: The storm breaks just at the right time to stop the rabbits escaping from Efrafa from being annihilated by General Woundwort and his Owsla. It's even implied this is due to supernatural causes. However the storm also hampers the escapees, whereas the more disciplined Efrafan Owsla rally and nearly prevent the escape.
- Words of Radiance: When the Parshendi get really desperate, they decide to use the rediscovered stormform to summon an unexpected highstorm against the Alethi. Highstorms are massive hurricanes that travel from east to west across the entire continent; if summoned at the right time, the Alethi would be annihilated. However, the Parshendi are worried that stormform would open them up to possession by their gods, and are hesitant to use it. They're right. Eshonai becomes the first new Voidbringers, and despite her best efforts, turns the rest of her people into Voidbringers as well. They then summon the Everstorm, a highstorm filled with the power of Odium and blowing the wrong way, from west to east.
- Worm: One of the three Endbringers, Leviathan (who has large-scale hydrokinesis), causes torrential rains every time it attacks a city. Not only does it cause the defenders heavy problems as they have to deal with the floods that come, Leviathan can also use the rain to sense and track down any threats.
- Wyatt's Hurricane by Desmond Bagley: Wyatt is a meteorologist trying to convince people that a hurricane is about to strike a Banana Republic in the middle of a revolution. The Caligula throws Wyatt out of his office but the Rebel Leader believes him, has his rebels evacuate the citizenry by force and withdraws to higher ground, knowing that the government forces will reoccupy the city and get wiped out by the hurricane.
Live-Action TV
- Game of Thrones:
- The Night King uses his magic to send a blizzard towards the Wildling camp at Hardhome, through which his army of wights attack.
- When Joffrey argues that they should subjugate the North in Season 1, Cersei points out that not even the gods will save their army from winter.
- When Weather Changed History, a Weather Channel documentary segment, sometimes discusses this trope, although natural disasters are a more common topic.
Tabletop Games
- Some military board games have weather rules, such as Avalon Hill's The Russian Campaign, which covers the World War 2 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The rules depict the difficulties the German invaders had with "General Winter".
- BattleTech has extensive rules for weather effects, including a variety of wind levels, rain and snow, lightning, and other weirder stuff for more alien planets.
- Dungeons & Dragons has a series of spells which affect local weather, ranging from Obscuring Mist to Control Weather to Storm of Vengeance. Even without magic, weather can have an impact in the combat system, but the effect is typically small.
- Formula D: At the beginning of a qualifying round or a race proper, a die is rolled to determine whether the entire session takes place in clear weather or rain or wheather the weather can change during the race (overcast). When it's raining, cars in a corner move further than normal, increasing the chances of losing Tire WP by skidding past. A player can make a pit stop to change to dedicated rain tires but those have the disadvantage of wearing out faster than normal when skidding past a corner, especially when it isn't raining. Conversely, a driver can change to softer racing slicks which allows them to add a space to their movement but the penalties for skipping a corner are also doubled and they handle even worse in the rain compared to hard tires, skidding even further. Tunnels, denoted by the roadway being a darker gray than the rest of the track, are unaffected by rain and movement through them is treated as if driving in dry conditions.
- Warhammer:
- Blood Bowl has weather rules. In most matches, the weather has no effect, but sometimes players can collapse in the heat, drop the slippery ball in the snow, or be blinded by the sunshine — no matter which direction they're facing!
- Warhammer Fantasy Battle: Kislev is protected by its leader Tzarina Katarin, who can call upon a massive blizzard against any army that dares invade Kislev. Most of the Chaos Hordes tend to avoid attacking Kislev directly unless their armies are large and powerful enough to survive one.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- The battle of Skalathrax took place between the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children legions of Chaos Space Marines on a Daemon World. The battle was interrupted by a blizzard so severe that it caused the Super Soldiers to take cover. Khârn the Betrayer of the World Eaters did not like this one bit and proceeded to, on his own, burn both the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children out of their cover, forcing them to fight viciously for the scant remaining shelter and breaking the ranks of both legions so severely that neither has fought as a united force in nearly 10,000 years (and earning him his nickname).
- The Space Wolves have their own psychic powers which manifest mostly as causing vast wintry storms no matter the planet or the climate. The High Rune Priest Njal Stormcaller not only has all six of them (regular rune priests are limited to two), he has a permanent storm brewing around him that gets worse the longer the game goes on until every enemy in range is getting targeted by lightning strikes every turn.
Video Games
- Advanced Strategic Command has wind and weather status. Some units (mostly planes) are killed if the wind is too strong and they aren't hidden in a hangar or transport unit. Snow changes the terrain and can affect unit movement. Also, paths suffer from bad weather, while proper roads — more costly to build — don't. Output of solar and wind powerplants depends on the weather.
- Ancestors' Legacy: Rain drastically cuts down the effectiveness of archers, and also makes it difficult to set buildings on fire. Sight radius is substantially affected by the time of day, presence of torches and fireplaces during night-time, etc.
- Another Eden: Starting from The Chronos Empire Strikes Back main story arc, weather and field conditions of the Hollow Time Layer affect field layouts and battles. For example, there are certain areas of the field those become invisible when the area is fogged, and enemies may have special buffs or debuffs depending on the weather condition. Different areas also have different severity of the condition, with phase-shifted versions of the area will always be affected by severe condition.
- Banner of the Maid: Weathers can significantly change the course of the battle.
- Sunny weather is the default, straightforward weather.
- Rainy weather reduces evasion to all units by 20%. Rifles, cannons, and muskets cost double the amount of ammo.
- Snowy weather reduces movement and speed of all units. However, units stationed near campfires are not affected by the cold.
- Foggy weather reduces the range of long range weapons by 2.
- Brütal Legend: Each faction has a guitar solo that temporarily affects the sky above the battlefield: Ironheade's Light of Dawn cancels all enemy buffs and debuffs, the Drowning Doom's Encompassing Gloom stops the enemy from producing new units, and the Tainted Coil's Skies Afire causes friendly units to inflict more damage when they're close to their own stage.
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun: Ion Storms afflicted some campaign maps and could strike at random in skirmishes. Not only did they occasionally lightning-strike random points of ground, they shut down radar, aircraft, and hovering units.
- Company of Heroes 2, taking place on the Eastern Front, has maps with alternate winter versions. In winter, water will freeze to be traversed by infantry and vehicles (and potentially broken through to the misfortune on those on it), some areas will have deep snow that slows units going through it, infantry caught in the wind blowing to the right without the environment to cover them will get colder causing movement and combat penalties at it worsens up to slowly killing them from exposure, and fires appear around some strategic points while also being buildable for infantry to warm themselves by. Temporary blizzards can also happen in winter maps, greatly worsening the effects of the winter wind to infantry, letting infantry be camouflaged in deep snow, greatly reducing all units' ability to see, and preventing many forms of off-map fire-support call-ins from being utilized.
- Dominions: There are various spells that change the weather. Storm causes, well a storm that makes flying impossible for most units and makes archers lose most of their shots. Heat from Heat causes an exhausting heat wave to hit the battlefield, tiring out any units not protected against heat. Wolven Winter makes the targeted province colder and kills off part of the population, and so on...
- Dune: In the later games, a bad sandstorm can seriously damage your base.
- Earth 2150: High windspeeds affect aircraft performance. Rain slows down ground units. Storms and meteor showers, on the other hand...
- Edge of Eternity has weather that changes the effectiveness of spell elements, indicated by the element's icon being colored (improved) or crossed out (weakened). Crystals in towns let you choose any type of weather at will.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has a weaponized version in the form of a shout that creates an instant thunderstorm, which strikes down your foes with lightning. Another shout lets you invert this by clearing the sky, in case you want to fight under a starry sky with an aurora.
- Empire at War: Every planet has its own weather conditions which can affect the range or accuracy of your ground units.
- Endless Legend has heavy winters which occur semi-regularly (and their length increases as the game goes on due to the planet's climate collapsing); Winter start out causing units to move 50% slower and have their vision radius reduced by one hex, and cities produce 50% of their normal food output, with the winters growing worse every season. The Roving Clans suffer even more, as their thin tent-based cities must burn Dust during winter to stay warm. However, Heroes assigned to armies or cities can reduce the penalties from winter.
- Epic Battle Fantasy 5 has over thirty types of weather which vary from area to area, affecting battle conditions in different ways. The weather and its effects can range from logical (Rain makes everyone more susceptible to ice and electricity, Blizzard has a chance of inflicting Freeze, Thunderstorm casts Thunder and Thunderbolt spells at random targets) to utterly bizarre (Cherry Blossom provides extra turns, Energy gives offensive buffs, and ??—[[/@#,, hides everyone's stats).
- Final Fantasy XII: Certain areas have weather and/or terrain affecting the effectiveness of attacks, usually elemental magic. Rain, for example, will amplify water magick, while cloudy weather will amplify wind magick. Some enemies may have "Ignore Weather & Landscape" ability, which means they are unaffected by environmental conditions. There is also Mist, which can even appear indoors and increases magick power and the rate of MP regeneration by walking.
- Fire Emblem: Rain and snow will limit your movement speed. Fog, darkness, and sandstorms also limit vision, though that's technically a different trope.
- Flashpoint Campaigns: Weather plays a big role in visibility and weapons performance. Rain will degrade thermal imagers and reduce accuracy on optically-guided weapons. It and fog will also reduce normal visibility down to as much as 500 meters. Weather can also prevent non-all weather aircraft from flying sorties.
- Flower Knight Girl: Chapter 9 of the Aqua Shadow Sub-Story features a perpetual rainfall in Winter Rose, which help sustains the Aqua Shadows and makes it hard for the Flower Knights to fight against them. By the climax, the tide is turned against the Aqua Shadows when the rainfall is replaced with a snowfall, courtesy of Queen Novalis borrowing the power of the World Flower, that the Flower Knights get the advantage instead against the weakened water clones.
- Foxhole:
- Snowstorms in the northern portion of the map can freeze players to death, render vehicles and factories inoperable, and limit your vision. They can also freeze lakes and rivers, allowing land-based troops to attack from unexpected angles.
- Rainstorms in the southern portion of the map make players muddy (increasing their encumbrance until they walk it off while inside a base) and limit the intel collection area of watchtowers.
- In general, the wind alters the landing site of artillery shells and reduces their general accuracy. You can check the wind by looking at the flags on any bunker, pillbox, or watchtower.
- Glory of Heracles (DS): During the fight with the Hydra, black rain comes down. As a result, you take damage at the end of each round.
- Gratuitous Space Battles: "Spatial anomalies" which cause a variety of effects on the battlefield that limit the number of ships that can be deployed, or which have other effects such as reducing shield strength or weapons ranges or requiring engines to reach the battlefield.
- Graviteam Tactics: Weather has a big influence on the spotting ability of your troops. Heavy rain and snow won't affect the health or morale of your troops, but it (along with darkness) can prevent air spotters from calling in aircraft.
- Hegemony Series: The seasons determine farm output, sheep spawning, and whether or not the sea can be sailed.
- Helldivers II has a variety of biomes across the galaxy, each one with unique weather and geology. Blinding snowstorms, armour-degrading acid rain, thick fog, fire tornadoes, and more regularly sweep through mission areas. And it's not just the atmosphere that's out to mess with you: small earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and meteorite storms can also make life harder for anyone trying to fight on the ground.
- inFAMOUS 2 has one mission featuring a nasty looking thunderstorm overhead. This is fortuitous for a player character who can absorb electricity to power his abilities. In fact, it uniquely allows the the player to recharge their super move ammo as well, turning a late game mission full of high level enemies into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Jagged Alliance:
- The first game has random Heat Waves at the start of days which greatly increase the rate that stamina drains from your mercs, outside of Hector and the native guides, who have the Heat Resistant trait.
- Added in the 1.13 mod for the second game in the form of rain and thunderstorms, which greatly reduces vision across the board and makes firearms jam more often, Thunderstorms also have a chance that a lightning bolt will reveal enemies and cause an interrupt — for both sides.
- Returns in the third game with a large number of possible weather effects, including rain, heat, fog, and sandstorms. Heat causes anyone who takes damage to have a chance to collapse, rainstorms reduce vision range and degrade weapon condition faster, and so on.
- King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame: Weather can be changed by skills, creating fog, storms, night, or a clear day. Fog reduces sight, benefits Unseelie units and hampers archers; storms benefit Seelie units and greatly hamper archers, knights and heavy infantry; night reduces sight and benefits Unseelie units; and a clear day hampers Unseelie units. The seasons also affect strategy, as armies can march further during summer and cannot move at all in winter.
- Mass Effect 2: The weather occasionally has an impact — on several sidequests, the player encounters fog and sandstorms they cannot see through, on Tali's recruitment mission direct sunlight frys shields, and on the Shadow Broker's Base the player can use biotics to throw enemies outside the ship's environmental shield, resulting in them being flung into oblivion by the slipstream or struck by lightning.
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: The weather changes in real-time, which can change how you approach certain situations. The iDroid allows you to see the local forecast so you can plan ahead, though it isn't always right.
- Mini Robot Wars: The third playthrough has the enemy machines screwing around with the planet's ecosystem, causing weather hazards in every level that harmfully affect your units. Oh, and enemy units are completely unaffected.
- Green Fields: A periodic shower of acid rain damages all topmost minirobots.
- Waste Sands: Earthquakes occur periodically, damaging any minirobots on the ground.
- South Ocean: Whirlpools will rise from areas without floor, damaging up to two entire columns of minirobots.
- Glacier Land: A non-damaging blast of wind pushes back all your air units in a row. If your air units get pushed into the ground or off the right side of the screen, they are instantly destroyed.
- Iron Fortress: "Meteors" rain down on the field, these are actually Mooks sent down from space. If a meteor lands on a minirobot, it destroys that minirobot instantly.
- Myth: This is one of the game's major selling points. Strong wind can make arrows go off course, rain and wet ground might put out dwarven explosive cocktails, dry grass can be set on fire, and troop movements leave tracks in the snow and mud that can clue a player into what their opposition has been up to.
- Nintendo Wars:
- In the first two GBA Advance Wars games, rain and snow increase the cost of moving over certain types of terrain. Rain also reduced vision range by one space in Fog of War situations. Drake and Olaf's movement stats are not affected by rain and snow respectively (though Drake still took the rain vision penalty), and their CO Powers utilize them. As of the second game, Sturm's movement (not affected by snow in the first game) also became unaffected by rain.
- In Advance Wars: Dual Strike, weather no longer imposes movement penalties. Snow causes all units (except Olaf's) to spend double the amount of fuel to move (but allows them to move their full range), and rain induces Fog of War with the vision range reduction from the GBA games. Sandstorms reduce the maximum range of indirect combat units by one space.
- In Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, snow reduces maximum movement range by one space, rain induces Fog of War and reduces vision range to one space for units and zero for properties and fire pillars, and sandstorms significantly reduce attack power. Penny is immune to all of these effects (in rain, she is affected by Fog of War, but her vision range is normal), and her CO Power induces any one of the three at random for a few days.
- Outpost 2: Among the natural disasters that can cause problems for you are electrical storms and vortexes, which can and will cause extensive damage to your base and any units they hit.
- Patapon: Wind can help your archer's arrows fly farther (and, if they're Arrows on Fire, help said arrows do more damage), while rain extinguishes fire but makes it possible to pass the desert.
- Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: The freezing winds in Frostbite Caves will start chilling plants and eventually freeze them over.
- Pokémon:
- Weather conditions, which modify the effectiveness of moves and advantage or disadvantage different elemental Types, are a common part of battle mechanics. In addition, some Pokémon have abilities that either create a weather condition or make them stronger in a given weather. This makes "weather teams", designed entirely to exploit a certain type of weather, a legitimate strategy. When two such teams that rely on different types of weather collide, this is referred to as a "weather war", with the victor usually being the team that most effectively manages to make its signature weather stick on the field while preventing the opponent from doing the same.
- Rain and bright sunlight, introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver, will change the effectiveness of Fire and Water-typed moves — rain makes Fire moves weaker and Water ones stronger, while sunlight does the opposite. Sunlight also allows Grass-type moves like Solar Beam, which require a turn to charge, to be used instantly. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, it also increases the speed of Grass-types. Rain gives certain moves like Thunder 100% accuracy and allows the move Electro Shot to be used instantly rather than requiring a turn to charge.
- Sandstorm and hail, introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, respectively, will deal damage to all Pokémon on the field every turn unless they're a type that resists it, have an ability that gives immunity to it, or are wearing Safety Goggles. Sandstorms damage all Pokémon that are not Rock-, Ground-, or Steel-types and boosts Rock types' Special Defense by 50%, while hail damages non Ice-types. Since Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, hail has been replaced by snow, which removes the damaging effect of hail while also increasing Ice types' Defense by 50%.
- Fog, only found in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus, doesn't interact with Types directly but instead lowers the accuracy of all moves.
- The move Weather Ball gets power and typing depending on the weather. It's Normal by default, Fire-type in the sun, Water-type in the rain, Ice-type in hail, and Rock-type during sandstorms.
- Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness includes Shadow Sky, which damages all non-Shadow Pokemon in battle and, uniquely, makes Weather Ball a ???-type move.
- Pokémon GO: Various real-world weather conditions will boost certain move types.
- Sunny/clear: Grass, Fire, Ground
- Rainy: Water, Electric, Bug
- Partly cloudy: Normal, Rock
- Cloudy: Fairy, Fighting, Poison
- Windy: Flying, Dragon, Psychic
- Snow: Ice, Steel
- Fog: Dark, Ghost
- Weather conditions, which modify the effectiveness of moves and advantage or disadvantage different elemental Types, are a common part of battle mechanics. In addition, some Pokémon have abilities that either create a weather condition or make them stronger in a given weather. This makes "weather teams", designed entirely to exploit a certain type of weather, a legitimate strategy. When two such teams that rely on different types of weather collide, this is referred to as a "weather war", with the victor usually being the team that most effectively manages to make its signature weather stick on the field while preventing the opponent from doing the same.
- Resident Evil 6: the thunderstorm in the background plays an important role in Leon and Helena's battle against Derek Simmon's One-Winged Angel form, as he will be struck by lightning if he absorbs a zombie impaled with a lightning rod.
- Rule The Waves: Poor weather will impact your accuracy, spotting range and speed. If the weather gets bad enough some ships may even be in danger of sinking without the enemy needing to help them along.
- Skyland (2021): The Salvage Arm and Solar Cells only work in clear weather. The Spark Cannon only works during storms.
- Spec Ops: The Line takes place in a fictionalized version of Dubai beset by the most violent sandstorms in recorded history. Firefights are frequently interrupted by intense storms which have all combatants running for cover.
- StarCraft II: Co-op Mode: The Twister and Blizzard mutators summon storms that sweep across the map, damaging any player units caught in their path. Enemies are, of course, unaffected.
- Terraria: Weather conditions typically cause the spawning of unique enemies. Rain comes with flying fish, raincoat-wearing zombies, umbrella-wearing slimes, and Cumulonemeses, heavy winds carry balloon-borne slimes, and sandstorms populate deserts with agitated antlions and, in Hardmode, sand elementals, Land Sharks, and Sandworms. This is in addition to varieties of Weird Weather, such as rains of slimes.
- Total Annihilation:
- High windspeeds improve the performance of wind-power generators.
- At least two separate planets and one of the moons you fight on also have meteor showers. Which can trigger units that would otherwise not have attacked yet, or destroy resource collectors. Fortunately, it's an equal opportunity damage maker, hitting player and AI alike.
- Total War: Rain and wind affect the accuracy of arrows; soldiers from northern climes fight better in snow; storms at sea can completely wreck an invasion. Rain is a particular problem for games that take place in eras with black powder firearms, as they can hinder the time between gun volleys or in some cases prevent guns from firing altogether.
- Touhou Project: Touhou Hisouten ~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and its Expansion Pack, Touhou Hisoutensoku ~ Choudokyuu Ginyoru no Nazo o Oe, has a mechanic where weather would change during a match, creating different effects. For example, Typhoon removes flinching and blocking, River Mist makes the distance between players go wonky, and Scorching Sun damages any player who flies too high.
- Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail: Wind, atmospheric conditions, and sea state all affect gun accuracy and visibility range, and sea state can affect ship speed and turning radius. Wind, of course, is the God Stat, as it determines which directions your ships can go and how fast. That in turn affects how much the ship heels over to one side or another, which affects the max range of your guns since they can only elevate so high.
- Unity of Command: Weather can affect the game by limiting the effectiveness of air attacks, restrict the ability for normal units to dig in, and limit movement.
- Valkyria Chronicles: Certain battles might be complicated by sandstorms (hinders visibility) or snowstorms (incapacitated soldiers die quickly).
- Warlords Battlecry: Various races get various bonuses and penalties depending on the weather and time of day. Most evil races like to fight at night or in the rain (or both, e.g. the undead), while most good races like to fight during the day or with clear skies.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: The in-game card game Gwent is designed to simulate two armies going into battle, and has a number of weather cards that impede particular units, giving them a base attack strength of 1. Frost impedes the melee soldiers on the front line, fog impedes the archers on the middle line, and heavy rain impedes the siege engines on the back line.
- World of Warships has the cyclones that randomly appear in matches. Once one takes place, visibility is tremendously reduced, and can have the capability of changing the outcome of a match either in the player's team's or enemy team's favor.
Web Animation
- history of japan: Two "tornadoes"note foil the Mongols' attempted invasion of Japan.
Web Videos
- In the fan-created Pokémon region The Kaskade Region, the main feature/gimmick is that several of its Pokémon exhibit strange weather energy ("weathergy"), allowing them to produce more varied battle weather effects beyond the usual sun, rain, hail, and sand. There is now one type of weather for each Pokémon type (with one move and one ability to activate it), divided into three different sub-categories, and one weather of each category can be active on the field at any one time, allowing for a large variety of weather combinations (and terrain combinations too). Major battles in the region can start with some weather effects already active.
- Climate-based weather includes Fire-type harsh sunlight, Water-type rain, Ice-type hail, Dark-type blood moon, and Normal-type fog.
- Irritant-based weather involves filling the air with some form of material, like Rock-type sand, Ground-type dust, Grass-type pollen, Bug-type pheromones, Poison-type smog, or Fairy-type fairy dust.
- Energy-based weather involves suffusing the battlefield with some type of energy, like Fighting-type aura, Ghost-type cursed winds, Psychic-type cosmic rays, Dragon-type arcane power/Infinity energy, an Electric-type thunderstorm, or the Steel-type magnetosphere.
- The Strong Winds of the Flying-type are special, since they not only clear all existing weather conditions, but also boost the power of the next weather move used, granting it extra power and effects.
- Twitch Plays Pokémon Randomized SoulSilver:
- Early in the run, players consider a team revolving around hail rather than rain, making use of Absol's Snow Warning ability along with Lapras' Ice typing granting it immunity from Hail damage, but said damage eventually proves too cumbersome to work around, and Absol is eventually deposited.
- This is exploited by the final team, whose main strategy revolves heavily around Rotom setting up a rainfall thanks to its Drizzle ability. On top of allowing Rotom's own Thunder move to never miss, it also boosts the power of Machamp's and Masquerain's Waterfall by 50%, heals Lapras of status ailments thanks to its Hydration ability, and restores one eighth of either Deoxys' HP due to their own Dry Skin ability.
Western Animation
- Star Wars Rebels: In "Relics of the Old Republic", our heroes and some retired clone troopers in an obsolete AT-TE walking tank find themselves up against three Imperial AT-ATs. They retreat into a sandstorm which knocks out both their sensors and those of the Imperials; however they have the advantage of having a Jedi and his Padawan on board, who can navigate and aim their guns using the Force.
Real Life
- The English defeat of the Spanish Armada (which was nicknamed "the Invincible Armada" by the British) was initially a relatively standard fleet action between Men 'O War, with only two ships being sunk by enemy fire. What made it decisive was a powerful storm, dubbed "the Protestant Wind" by some, that swept through as the Spanish tried to regroup after the battle at Gravelines. The English merely returned to port, but the Spanish fleet was forced to take a detour and was devastated — 35 of their 130 ships did not return. One famous quote from Spanish king Philip II after the battle was "I didn't send my ships to fight the elements". The Dutch (allies of the English), meanwhile, had medals struck with the inscription "Flevit Jehovah et dissipati sunt" — "God blew, and they were scattered".
- As ships at the time were still relatively small and only capable of relatively slow speeds, and as the Spanish ones on the whole were much heavier and less manoeuverable than the English ones, many of the skirmishes and battles during the passage of the Armada through the English Channel were also significantly affected by tides and currents. Also by the English admirals knowing at what times of day the wind could be expected to turn in which way in different places.
- The whole thing repeated two more times during the war, with the second and third Spanish Armadas failing to reach the British Isles due to untimely storms, although much less disastrously each.
- The tide of battle at Agincourt was significantly affected by the fact that it had rained for a few days before the battle, turning the soil of the freshly plowed fields soft. The French heavy cavalry and dismounted men at arms had to cross a quagmire of mud under a hail of arrows in order to get to the English, with the result that some of them didn't even make it that far. Furthermore, because the terrain and stakes were funneling their huge army into a tight space, crowding all of them together as they approached the English men-at-arms, many of the French got trampled or thrown to the ground and drowned in puddles in the ensuing confusion.
- The Normandy invasion was nearly postponed a month (at a minimum) except that a storm that was moving through the area was predicted to break on June 6th. This allowed them both a day of good weather and a moonless night for the paratroopers. The bad weather caused many German officers to believe that an allied invasion was unlikely and that it would be okay to leave for a planned wargames (due to Allied naval superiority, the German weather stations in the Arctic that would have told them otherwise had been eliminated). The rest is history.
- It's a long established Running Gag that one of if not the most effective members of the Russian military is General Winter (and his trusty aides, Colonel Slush and Major Mud). The Russian winter is so severe that all historical attempts to invade the country in that season fell dead in the water while the Russians just backed away from the enemy and holed up in their homes for the season. Even the rasputitsa (the wet period that precedes winter) can cause problems for invaders by turning many roads into impassable quagmires. The only invaders to have success here were the Mongols who came from a place with even colder winters, among other advantages.
- Some commanders have been mistaken in this regard. For instance, Napoleon's retreat would have been a lot easier if the weather had not become suddenly warmer after he ordered the army's pontoon train to be burned to alleviate the transport problem. Thus the Berezina river no longer was frozen over and its crossing became a much more challenging operation.
- Somewhat the same problem affected the Germans in 1941. During the decisive autumn months, the main problem was the rain and the mud which prevented wheeled vehicles from keeping up with tanks (and German tanks of the time did not have necessary cross-country mobility to deal with the situation, at any rate). While the wintry cold was a serious challenge, German mechanized forces could operate over frozen ground better than they could on mud and were able to launch their final assault on Moscow, although it did eventually fail.
- During the Mongol invasion of Russia, the wintry weather gave the Mongols a decisive advantage over the Russians. Most major Russians cities stood near great rivers, especially the Volga. Frozen rivers acted as virtual highways for Mongol invaders, providing easily traversed routes for Mongol horsemen to the doorsteps of these cities. Coming from frozen steppes of Mongolia, the cold did not bother the Mongols much.
- During the opening stages of the battle of Eylau (8 February 1807) there was a snowstorm, which caused a French corps to lose its way. It ran into the greater part of the Russian artillery and was almost immediately blasted to smithereens at close range.
- In August 1813 a rainy bad weather front affected the outcome of several battles during The Napoleonic Wars, as the rains were so heavy that flintlocks became almost totally unusable. This helped to offset the disadvantage of the hastily equipped and sketchily trained Prussian militia (Landwehr), e. g. at Großbeeren (23rd) and the Katzbach (26th), because now it did not help their foes that they were quicker shots. At the battle of the Katzbach part of the defeated French army was driven into a river which in normal conditions was too small to be an obstacle, but which because of the rain was seriously swollen. At Dresden (26th and 27th) the rain also resulted in unusual situations because while the infantry was largely unable to fire, the cavalry was slowed down almost to a walk by the mud, so there were instances where French infantry made successful bayonet charges against the allied cavalry.
- Another Napoleon example is the battle of Austerlitz, which started out in the morning in dense fog. Both the French and the Austro-Russian Army spent considerable time trying to figure out where the enemy was. The situation literally cleared up by afternoon.
- Both Mongol invasions of Japan were thwarted by freak typhoons, known as kamikaze (divine winds). The second invasion attempt in 1281 was particularly devastating, as it sank nearly the entire fleet killed over 70,000 soldiers and sailors, the greatest single-day loss of life at sea in recorded history. It can be presumed that after two consecutive failed attempts, Kublai Khan (Grandson of Genghis Khan and conqueror of China) decided that Japan wasn't worth invading, and thus turned his attentions elsewhere.
- In the age of black powder before the introduction of percussion caps, many a battle was ruined by the rain, which forced the infantry to rely on pikes or bayonets and often put musketeers totally at the mercy of cavalry or pole-armed infantry.
- Sometimes it was believed that the battles may have affected the weather to some extent, the explosions and smoke acting as a catalyst that set off a rainy downpour under certain conditions.
- The infamous gas attacks during WW1 success was often dependent on the wind. A gentle breeze towards the enemy line would make sure the gas stayed over their trenches till they died. On the other hand, the wind was often known to change and blow the deadly gas back to friendly lines.
- The Netherlands traditionally relied to a large extent on the multitude of rivers, canals, wet moats and deliberately flooded areas in the defence of their countries, but these did not help them at all in the cold winter of 1794/95 when even the branches of the Rhine froze over, enabling the Revolutionary French Army to overrun the country and force the Dutch, Austrian, and Anglo-German armies to retreat. A body of French cavalry even managed to capture a Dutch fleet frozen in place at anchor by riding across the ice.
- The Battle of Towton was the bloodiest battle ever fought in England, would remain the most lethal battle to Englishmen for over 400 years until the Battle of the Somme occurred, and certainly would have not happened like it did if not for the violent snowstorm that was occurring throughout it . The Yorkists fought against the Lancastrians, though for most of the battle the Yorkists were believed to have been outnumbered by at least 10,000 men - however, the fierce blizzard happening that day caused the Lancastrians' arrows to fall short of their targets from the strong winds blowing in their faces and just resupplied their adversaries, and so the Lancastrians charged but the snow (said to be around knee height) hampered and tired them enough that the outnumbered Yorkists would manage to hold on for several hours before reinforcements arrived. The exhausted Lancastrians would soon break and attempt to flee, though to many of them it was to no avail as the much fresher Yorkists reinforcements had no trouble catching and slaughtering much of the fleeing troops.
- During the Russo-Swedish War for Finland (1808-1810), a Russian army marched across the frozen-over Baltic Sea to take the war from Finland to Sweden itself.
- Part of Wellington's victory at The Battle of Waterloo is owed to the heavy rain of the early morning and the night before. Not only did it postpone the start of the battle by several hours, giving the Prussians more time to reach the battlefield, but the vastly superior French artillery was greatly hampered by the mud, both due the increased difficulty of repositioning the guns after each shot and the ineffectiveness of the grenades fired at Wellington's infantry behind the hilltop (the grenades would explode as usual, but the mud slowed down or even stopped the fragments that did the actual killing, thus causing many less casualties they should have done). Without that rain, chance is that Napoleon would have overwhelmed Wellington's army with the strength of his artillery well before the Prussian arrived, and then would have taken them out too.
- One famous example from British history is the Battle of Plassey during the Seven Years War. Robert Clive's forces faced an Indian army almost twenty times its strength and won. Largely because of a heavy rainstorm which soaked the enemy's muskets and powder, giving Clive's smaller force superior firepower by default.
- The Battle of Inkerman in The Crimean War. The Russian attack began at dawn, with visibility compounded by a light rain and heavy fog that persisted throughout the day. Visibility was so bad that neither commanding officer (Menshikov or Raglan) exercised any real control over the fighting. On the ground, artillery was unable to find range, several units became lost, and friendly fire incidents occurred on both sides. In an inversion of Plassey, several British regiments went into action with unloaded muskets, as the rain soaked their powder. One historian termed the battle "like fighting in a nightmare."
- The American Revolution had several notable examples. Probably the most consequential: the fog which allowed George Washington to extricate his men from Long Island after a decisive defeat, preventing the British from destroying the Continental Army. A similar fog aided Washington's attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton, allowing Washington to establish the initiative again after being on the back foot since Long Island.
- The Italian Front in World War I was subjected to snowstorms and avalanches as fighting raged along the Dolomite Mountains, killing tens of thousands on both sides. The worst single incident was "White Friday" in December 1916, when an entire Austrian battalion (numbering 270 men) was wiped out by an avalanche. Besides natural occurrences, both sides allegedly used dynamite and artillery to deliberately trigger avalanches.
- During The Gulf War, many of the battles took place in very dusty deserts, prone to massive dust storms which could block out the sun and obscure vision. The Iraqi soldiers often found it impossible to see anything in these conditions. American forces which were equipped with night vision or infra-red optics, on the other hand, were able to spot their enemies despite the poor visibility.
- On the other hand, many Coalition air units found the dust storms interfered with the laser-guided smart bombs they relied on to target the Iraqis.
- The 1944 World War II Battle of the Bulge was actually planned entirely around the weather, specifically a thick fog that made flying conditions nearly impossible, effectively nullifying the considerable air superiority advantage held by the Allies at the time. Meanwhile, the bitter cold conditions made life miserable for both sides.
- In the Pacific War, weather became important to aircraft-carrier forces for an entirely different reason. Aircraft carriers must steam into the wind at high speed in order to launch or land aircraft. Depending on the tactical situation, a carrier force might prefer to be moving toward the enemy or away from the enemy — but if the wind was blowing the wrong way, the carriers might find themselves forced to steam the wrong way during flight operations. This was particularly significant during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, when the American carriers had to steam away from the enemy in order to launch a major air strike, thus making the already-long distance to the Japanese carrier forces even longer. The strike lost almost half its aircraft simply to fuel exhaustion.
- China's Three Kingdoms era had this famously decide the Battle of Red Cliff. Cao Cao, having finished taking control of basically the entire north of China, set up a massive navy to invade the south, prepared to fight fellow warlords Sun Quan and Liu Bei. Sun Quan's forces however had intimate knowledge of their territory's climate, and correctly predicted a windstorm during the time Cao Cao's fleet was on their doorstep. As such, they had a Fake Defector head to Cao Cao by boat, and then set the boats on fire just as they arrived. The ship that was hit got set alight, and the wind proceeded to fan the flames, causing the rest of the fleet to go ablaze, forcing Cao Cao to retreat.