shouldn't it be freezing at night?

[number13]

Having lived in the Arizona desert for many years, I can testify to the fact that low humidy enviroments get bitter cold at night.  The temprature plummets the minute the sun goes down, since there's little water in the air to provide insulation.

So, does it get cold at night on Zalanthus?  Room descs seem to indicate that the temprature is still warm....

Just a random thought I had...

[flashz00]

Yes it does. A little something that will verify this is simply just type weather.

[Petra]

Zalanthan nights only last a couple of hours, so there isn't enough time for the climate to adjust so dramatically as to become freezing, let alone even cold.  I'd say, all in all, Zalanthas is a constantly uncomfortably hot atmosphere.  When I type 'weather' and on the rare occasion it says "It is a cool night" (or cool day for that matter), I envision cool as somewhat relative, cool meaning a step down from the usual gruelling heat that persists day and night -- and that's not COLD by any stretch of the imagination.

[flashz00]

Zalanthan nights only last a couple of hours, so there isn't enough time for the climate to adjust so dramatically as to become freezing, let alone even cold.  I'd say, all in all, Zalanthas is a constantly uncomfortably hot atmosphere.  When I type 'weather' and on the rare occasion it says "It is a cool night" (or cool day for that matter), I envision cool as somewhat relative, cool meaning a step down from the usual gruelling heat that persists day and night -- and that's not COLD by any stretch of the imagination.

Yep. Exactly what Petra said.

[Bestatte]

Although I read in a previous thread, that the humans who inhabit Zalanthas don't have the same metabolism as humans in real life.

Our characters' physiology is designed to withstand extreme hot temperatures, so where it might be 140 degrees, that might "feel" normal to our characters. When the weather says it's "cool" perhaps it gets down to a chilly 100, and yes, our characters -might- indeed shiver from it.

Same kind of thing as people living in Florida. THEIR idea of cold is anything lower than 80. My idea of cold is anything under 70. Their idea of hot is over 100. Mine's anything over 90, especially when it's humid.

So yeah, weather is relative, but it isn't relative to real life. It's relative to what exists as "normal" in the game.

[sarahjc]

If my character happens to be outside at night I tend to always RP that its a bit cooler. Not freezing, but cooler. Maybe she makes sure to raise her hood and folds over her cloak.

In a Desert Climate there is really nothing that retains temperature and night time is at least three hours long..

I would think it's enough for a significant temperature change.

[Tlaloc]

Zalanthan nights only last a couple of hours, so there isn't enough time for the climate to adjust so dramatically as to become freezing, let alone even cold.

Don't assume that a "Zalanthan" Hour is exactly the same length of time as a "Terran" Hour. While I'm not going to make any broad, sweeping statements, I've personally never subscribed to the "Zalanthan days are only 8 hours long" school of thought. I think Zalanthan days are the equivalent of our Earth-days. They just keep time differently.

Again, this is just a personal opinion. I don't think anything has been officially *Decided*. But, to me, having an 8 hour day/night cycle just seems incredibly illogical.

[Rindan]

Well, if you assume that Zalanthas humans and Earth humans age the same way, then that means a Zalanthas year is equal to a human year because an 18 year old earth human is the same age as an 18 year old Zalanthas human.  A Zalanthas year has roughly double the number of days.  So, a Zalanthas day is half as long as a human day.  Assuming that all 'hours' that we go by in Zalanthas are the same length, then you have 9 zalanthas hours per zalanthas day, which is equal to 12 earth hours.  Two Zalanthas hours per day are without sun.  That means that is is roughly dark for 2.666 Earth hours a day.  

So, the sun on Zalanthas is down for only for 2 hours and 40 minutes earth time.  I imagine that is not much time for things to really cool down.

[Angela Christine]

That's true, but I assume it is also dark-ish for at least half of dusk and half of dawn.  Not pitch dark, but not direct sun light either.  3 Zalanthan hours would be about 4 Earth hours, still not very long.

Depending on where you are in relation to the shieldwall and various other cliffs and rock formations you might be stuck in a "dim" area for the full four hours of dusk through Dawn, and the are places throughout the known world that are shaded almost all the time, and are described as cooler than the surrounding area.  Spots like that might get downright cold at night.

Having said all that, I think the *air* might have enough time to get cold, or at least what would feel cold to someone adapted to the blistering heat.  Not litterally freezing, as in cold enough to form ice in waterskin, but cold enough to make you wish you bought a thicker cloak.  Stone can hold heat for a good long while, so I'm not sure if the ground would get all that cold durring the short Zalanthan night.  Permanent buildings probably wouldn't get very cold inside, a thin blanket ought to be enough.  Many barracks and public dormatories describe having blankets, but not heavy quilts and flannel sheets.  Mmmm, flannel.

So that's my take on it.

Angela Christine