Weather and disasters

From The City Wiki · Reference page · 9 entries · game data version 1.10.11

Weather and disasters: The Force of Nature pack: weather, high winds, storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, power cuts, repairs and getting ready.

Force of Nature is an add-on pack that brings weather and natural disasters to the city: storms, high winds, tornadoes, forest fires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, sinkholes and comet strikes. Without it the only weather is the snow of the base game.

Getting the pack and switching it on

The pack loads by itself when its file is in the game's dlc folder. The start screen's Loaded DLC's window lists the packs that are loaded, lets you add a pack file and switch each one on or off. A change counts from the next city you start or load. Packs do not run in the demo.

The Weather panel and the disaster setting

With the pack on, a Weather button sits on the City Hall rail. Its panel has four tabs: Weather (now and a three-day forecast), Disasters (the setting, and buttons to set any disaster off yourself), Build (everything that helps you get ready) and Record (past disasters, insurance and relief).

Setting	Disasters on their own	Storm harm
Off	none	none
Rare	about every 12 days	0.5×
Normal	about every 5 days	1×
Frequent	about every 2 days	2×

A new city starts on Rare. Nothing comes on its own in the first day or before the city has 200 people. With the setting on Off, or in sandbox mode, nothing happens on its own: the weather still changes, but storms and gales do no harm. The panel's buttons still work, so you can set off a disaster to try it.

The weather

Each season has its own mix, and the map changes it: the highlands get high winds 1.6 times as often, the coast and the flatlands about a quarter more. In winter the rain falls as snow.

Weather	Wind	What it is like
Clear	6 mph	Sunshine and light winds
Overcast	10 mph	Grey skies, dry
Rain	14 mph	Steady rain
Thunderstorm	28 mph	Heavy rain, thunder and lightning
Fog	3 mph	Thick fog, little wind
High winds	44 mph	Strong gusts
Heat wave	5 mph	Very hot and still
Cold snap	18 mph	Bitterly cold

Severe storms and heat waves are warned of three hours ahead, or six with a weather station.

High winds

High winds gust over 40 mph. Every hour of a gale there is about a 30% chance that a tree somewhere in the city snaps. About a third of the trees that come down fall on power lines and cut the power nearby for 3 to 8 hours (see Power cuts). High winds on their own do not damage buildings. Wind damage to roofs and windows comes with tornadoes and hurricanes.

Thunderstorms, lightning and hail

In a thunderstorm there is about a 10% chance an hour (twice that in a severe one) that lightning strikes one of the tallest buildings and sets it alight. About a third of thunderstorms are severe, and a severe storm has a 30% chance an hour of hail. Hail damages roofs and windows, dents cars and hurts people caught outside. These chances are halved on Rare and doubled on Frequent.

Tornadoes

Tornadoes come mostly in spring and summer, most often on the flatlands. Sirens sound a few seconds before it touches down (twice as long with a weather station) and people stay indoors. It moves with the wind. Any building it passes right over is destroyed, and everyone inside dies unless they made it to a storm shelter. Along the rest of its path buildings may fall or be damaged, people are hurt, trees are snapped or uprooted, strong ones flip cars, power lines come down for 8 to 20 hours and the streets are strewn with wreckage for road crews to clear. Anyone outside close to it is likely to be killed, unless a siren sent them indoors.

Strength	Path width	Chance a building in its path falls	Chance a building is damaged
EF0	2 blocks	0%	25%
EF1	3 blocks	2%	50%
EF2	4 blocks	12%	75%
EF3	6 blocks	35%	90%
EF4	7 blocks	65%	100%
EF5	9 blocks	90%	100%

EF0 and EF1 tornadoes are by far the most common. Away from the middle of the path, deaths in an EF0 are rare and in an EF1 about a third as likely as in a strong one.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes come only on the coast, in late summer and fall, from category 1 (the most common) to 5. There is a watch two days ahead and a warning eight hours ahead, then sirens; people take shelter and stay home. A hurricane lasts most of a day. The stronger it is, the more buildings are damaged and the dearer the repairs, trees blow down, power is cut for 12 to 36 hours, and a storm surge floods the shore unless a seawall holds it back.

Power cuts

Storms cut the power to the buildings around where the lines came down. Cuts from hail last 2 to 6 hours, from wind 3 to 8 hours, from a tornado 8 to 20 hours and from a hurricane 12 to 36 hours. With a public works depot in the city the crews fix them in about two thirds of the time. People whose home has no power get -10 ("No power at home since the storm"). Shops, offices, factories, schools, attractions and fuel stations without power close until it comes back. Hospitals, police and fire stations, power plants, water works and hotels run on generators.

Damage, repairs and insurance

A damaged building keeps working while it waits for repair, and a damaged house gets a blue tarp on its roof. A building that collapses leaves rubble, and some of the people inside die. After any disaster that kills someone, nobody moves to the city for a day.

The city's own buildings are repaired by its crews, who start about three hours after the damage (half that with an emergency operations center) and take about a day and a half. The city pays as the work goes on, and nothing is spent while the treasury is empty.

Everything else is paid for by its owner. An insured building is repaired at once: the owner pays a $500 deductible on a house or $2,000 on anything else, and the insurer pays the rest. An uninsured family with savings pays the whole bill (-8 while they pay); a family without the savings lives with the damage (-18) and after a week sells up and moves away. A landlord always pays, but takes a day about it, and the tenants get -5 while they wait. Insurance is sold by an insurance office to the buildings in its reach, and the city can pay a quarter or half of home premiums from the Record tab.

The work is done by contractors: a roofing company (roofs), a window and glass company (broken windows and glass) and a general contractor (everything else). With none in the city an out-of-town firm comes, half a day later, slower and at half as much again.

Heat waves and cold snaps

In a heat wave or a cold snap some residents aged 72 and over are taken ill. A cold snap can also burst the pipes in a building, which then needs repairs.

Getting ready

Everything below is on the Weather panel's Build tab.

Building	Price	What it does
Weather station	$30,000	Severe weather is warned of six hours ahead, not three, and hail storms do a fifth less harm.
Warning siren	$5,000	Sounds when a tornado, flood or tsunami is coming.
Storm shelter	$20,000	Somewhere to go when a tornado or hurricane comes.
Emergency operations center	$60,000	One for the whole city.
Road department	$40,000	Comes with three trucks and crews.
Insurance office	$2,500	Sells insurance to the homes, shops, offices and factories within its reach.
Roofing company	$1,800	Repairs the roofs of damaged houses for their owners and insurers (hail, wind, lightning, a weak tornado): three jobs at a time.
Window and glass company	$1,600	Replaces the broken windows and glass of damaged buildings for their owners and insurers (hail, wind, a weak tornado): three jobs at a time.

Levees, floodgates, seawalls, storm drains and drainage ditches keep water out, the fire lookout tower spots forest fires early, and a quake retrofit braces a building against earthquakes.

Weather and disasters