Weather and seasons

The sky is regional. It can storm at Paleto while Sandy Shores bakes, and a fog bank can sit on the coast all morning. Weather arrives as fronts that move across the map: cold fronts with rain bands and squalls, long warm fronts, northern snow, afternoon thunderstorms over the desert and hills, fog rolling in off the sea, and heat waves.

Forecasts

Tune a radio to 119.3 VHF for the Sandy Shores weather: a twelve-hour forecast that says how sure it is, and advisories when a front is due to reach a region in the next few hours. A barometer, if you find one, shows the pressure and which way it's heading. A forecast is only a forecast. Storms fall apart offshore, and a fair day sometimes doesn't turn out that way.

A Weather notice warns you a couple of minutes before rain, a storm, fog, snow or a blizzard reaches you. When the wind makes it feel much colder than the air, the HUD shows what it really feels like. The climate line gives the wind's direction and speed, and the chevron on the compass points the way it blows.

On the map

Turn on Weather in the field kit's Layers to see the sky on the map: soft tints where it's raining, snowing or foggy, the fronts drawn like a real weather chart with where they reach next and when, and faint streaks that drift with the wind. Your scent drifts the same way. Click a region's reading to open its card, and use the slider for the forecast three, six and twelve hours ahead.

The region you're standing in is always live. Everything else comes from the 119.3 broadcasts, so you only see it while you carry a working radio, marked with how long ago the last report went out. A forecast is still only a forecast. Wind flow can be switched off on its own.

What the weather changes

• Your body: cold, wind, rain and heat. See Survival needs.
• Driving: wet, snow and ice, mud on the dirt tracks, and closed mountain trails after heavy snow.
• The dead: fog and rain blind them, so they listen harder. Storms stop herds where they are, and the cold slows them down.
• Guns jam more when they're wet or frozen.
• Animals and fish behave differently, and base generators stall more in snow and rain.

When the moon comes up red, stay close to shelter. The dead are restless under a Blood Moon, and bases draw bigger hordes. You get a warning late in the afternoon before one rises.