Shra - climate

Temperature

Shra is a desert world. Like Earth, it has seasons, which alternate between hot and cold. Winter temperatures can be as low as -40 degrees centigrade, summers can reach scorching 65 degrees. As the orbit of the planet is almost fully circular, the variations are caused by the axial tilt. Temperatures increase and decrease rapidly with the changing solar flux, because there or no seas or oceans to dampen its effects. High latitudes receive less sunlight than low ones and thus are colder, but that effect is minor compared to the seasonal variation. Daily temperature variations are less extreme than on Earth, because the day-night cycle is shorter.
The table below lists average temperatures, in degrees centigrade, in the lowland desert throughout the year. Variations at oases are smaller; temperatures at higher altitudes are lower.

Period	Early spring	Spring rush	Late spring	Early summer	High summer	Late summer	Early autumn	Autumn rush	Late autumn	Early winter	Deep winter	Late winter
Average high	-7	18	44	62	70	61	43	17	-8	-27	-35	-26
Daily mean	-12	13	39	57	65	56	38	12	-13	-32	-40	-31
Average low	-17	8	34	52	60	51	33	7	-18	-37	-45	-36

Wind

Because Shra does not have seas or oceans, almost all heat energy transfer is done by the atmosphere. Winds are generally strong. Especially winter winds blowing southward and summer winds gusting north can be fierce.
On rare occasions calm days occur. The people of Shra consider them mysterious and holy events. They say that at those times all the wind yann congregate at a grand meeting and thus have no time to make the wind blow. Some have tried to find this meeting place; none have succeeded.

The air is dry, dust is ever present. Often it is stirred by the wind, sweeping over the land, infiltrating everything. At times, the winds blow so fiercely that dust storms arise, towering hundreds of meters into the air, obscuring and sandblasting everything and everyone. Shra experiences several major dust storms per month in spring and autumn and even more during winter and summer.

Besides dust storms there are also dust devils. On Earth these are rare and small; on Shra they are common often large enough to be dangerous. The largest ever seen was somewhere around 200 meters high and was as powerful as a tornado, lasting a full Shra-hour. Summer is the high season for dust devils.

Precipitation

Rain is rare and tends to fall in intense yet very brief showers. This happens only in the northern and southern regions, in summer and autumn, at higher altitudes. In winter there is not rain but snow and ice, all of which melts and evaporates when high summer temperatures return. Though most surface water evaporates, some seeps into the ground and slowly makes its way through underground aquifers to lower altitudes.