Predict minimum winter temperature/when is the coldest?

[franzanth]

Hi all! New player here.

I settled in a place I really like that turned out to be very cold during the winter. I'm bad at keeping track of the 4AM temps, but I've seen -20C at least once in December, and I already get sub zero temps starting in September.

I've been doing fine on the survival front - lots of food stored etc, but the constant -10C or lower outside kinda prevents me from making long resource gathering trips, even with fur clothing set. My plants and bees are also dormant even in the greenhouse. I haven't harvested a single crop between Sept-Dec, so I can't get more flax to progress on windmill stuff. My trees also stopped growing, so I can't make wood for decoration. My winter activities are somewhat limited to near-base caving and a mix of indoor activities.

Now that I'm still in December, I wonder which month is typically the coldest? Is there a way to predict the minimum winter temperature based on Spring/Summer temps?

I installed the mod that lets me move my translocator, so I'm thinking of setting up a winter base somewhere warmer where my plants could grow. However, my path south is blocked by thousands of blocks of mountainous terrain so making a trip south now (in December) to check 4AM temps is a hassle. I'm thinking of doing my scouting when it gets warm enough for me to parkour through the 1000+ blocks of mountains without constantly shivering.

Help a brother out in scouting his winter vacation house?

Thanks

[LadyWYT]

38 minutes ago, franzanth said:

Now that I'm still in December, I wonder which month is typically the coldest? Is there a way to predict the minimum winter temperature based on Spring/Summer temps?

I installed the mod that lets me move my translocator, so I'm thinking of setting up a winter base somewhere warmer where my plants could grow. However, my path south is blocked by thousands of blocks of mountainous terrain so making a trip south now (in December) to check 4AM temps is a hassle. I'm thinking of doing my scouting when it gets warm enough for me to parkour through the 1000+ blocks of mountains without constantly shivering.

Help a brother out in scouting his winter vacation house?

Welcome to the forums! Typically January is the coldest month, at least in my experience. If you're wanting to settle somewhere warm enough for crops to grow year-round, the easiest way to accomplish that(without starting a new world) is to trek south until you find redwood or bald cypress. While not tropical areas, the areas should still be warm enough to grow crops year-round, especially if you have greenhouses.

[franzanth]

I've seen them during my previous trip south, so that's good to know, thank you! I wonder if it's typical for "temperate" starter areas to get -20C winters like mine, or did I happen to start further north? When I first settled there and read about the greenhouse stuff I was expecting to still be able to grow stuff for longer.

Also this makes me wonder how punishing winter is in the true polar regions...

[Krougal]

8 minutes ago, franzanth said:

I've seen them during my previous trip south, so that's good to know, thank you! I wonder if it's typical for "temperate" starter areas to get -20C winters like mine, or did I happen to start further north? When I first settled there and read about the greenhouse stuff I was expecting to still be able to grow stuff for longer.

Also this makes me wonder how punishing winter is in the true polar regions...

Yes, it is typical, especially at night and/or higher altitudes. Dress warm.

I don't know about the polar regions, but there are probably some players around who do.

[LadyWYT]

21 minutes ago, franzanth said:

I've seen them during my previous trip south, so that's good to know, thank you! I wonder if it's typical for "temperate" starter areas to get -20C winters like mine, or did I happen to start further north? When I first settled there and read about the greenhouse stuff I was expecting to still be able to grow stuff for longer.

Also this makes me wonder how punishing winter is in the true polar regions...

 

11 minutes ago, Krougal said:

Yes, it is typical, especially at night and/or higher altitudes. Dress warm.

I don't know about the polar regions, but there are probably some players around who do.

Seems more like temperature appropriate for the Cool climate zone to me, but then again the cooler region is similar to temperate. Altitude definitely makes a big difference--I had a world that I settled near spawn, but on a high altitude plateau, so the overall climate was more of a taiga than anything temperate. I'm guessing what's probably happened here is OP either settled at a higher altitude, or strayed to the north and settled in a colder chunk. There are climate bands, yes, but they can be sprinkled with chunks that are warmer or colder.

[Krougal]

11 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Seems more like temperature appropriate for the Cool climate zone to me, but then again the cooler region is similar to temperate. Altitude definitely makes a big difference--I had a world that I settled near spawn, but on a high altitude plateau, so the overall climate was more of a taiga than anything temperate. I'm guessing what's probably happened here is OP either settled at a higher altitude, or strayed to the north and settled in a colder chunk. There are climate bands, yes, but they can be sprinkled with chunks that are warmer or colder.

It is possible I had moved a bit off the starting climate, as I play with a much smaller than default world-size.

[franzanth]

So I took this screenshot inside my 4 block underground cellar, at Y 109, with normal height generation. Loaded 1536 blocks to show the extent of the snow lol. On the top left edge of my loaded snow here you can see a patch of prospect points + a trader caravan, the area just south of that caravan is a yearlong snowy mountain, with larch nearby.

I guess I just happened to get a colder spawn (my polar-tropic distance is 50k, not 100k). I'm technically already southwest of spawn (0,0 is red star on the top right just before sand area). Lovely area overall, though. The only thing I have to travel for, so far, is lime (3k west or 10k south). I also can't find chalk/marble, but whatever.

[Krougal]

As counter-intuitive as it seems, try making a cellar at like Y170 and see how much colder it gets.

[franzanth]

Intriguing, will give that a try when I'm back in game.

Anyway, what are the downsides of living near the equator, in terms of tree production? I've seen that the crops have their temperature tolerance listed in game and that turnip etc won't grow in the tropics. But I have seen none about trees, whether in game or in the wiki. Considering the pine and birch native to my area don't grow in winter, does the tropical heat also stop tree growth in summer? Will colder trees i.e. larch even grow at all there?

[Krougal]

They won't grow naturally but you could bring seeds. Granted it may still be too hot for some of them.

There are acacia trees for resin at least, and you can make bowstaves out of bamboo.

There are also some exotic woods and fruits down there. So you won't suffer for variety.

It's too warm for the berry bushes, even if you transplant them I don't think you will get a crop.

 

[franzanth]

17 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

until you find redwood or bald cypress

I did a quick flying around in creative to test temps. So my copy world is set to winter only, 4am, and the temp at my base is -21C.
My nearest redwood is -1.5C. I don't know whether a winter-only world gives us the absolute minimum temperature or not, but would this area be good for a winter greenhouse?

For reference I flew 25k south and the temp was 24C (my polar-equator is 50k)

14 hours ago, Krougal said:

As counter-intuitive as it seems, try making a cellar at like Y170 and see how much colder it gets.

I did a test, seems like it's -25C, compared to -15C in my actual basement cellar. Does temperature also fluctuate vertically or is it linear?

[Krougal]

1 minute ago, franzanth said:

I did a quick flying around in creative to test temps. So my copy world is set to winter only, 4am, and the temp at my base is -21C.
My nearest redwood is -1.5C. I don't know whether a winter-only world gives us the absolute minimum temperature or not, but would this area be good for a winter greenhouse?

For reference I flew 25k south and the temp was 24C (my polar-equator is 50k)

I did a test, seems like it's -25C, compared to -15C in my actual basement cellar. Does temperature also fluctuate vertically or is it linear?

Depends what you want to grow, but yes, provided that is the absolute coldest day. Greenhouse gives you 5C, so 4.5C.

I'm not sure what you mean about the temperature fluctuating vertically. It gets colder the higher you go. If you mean is the range larger at higher altitudes, from my limited observations, I'd say no, it is fixed. So whatever the temperature at sea level is, the temperature at high alt seems to be a regular amount lower.

[franzanth]

Sweet, thanks for the explanation!