There must have been some threads talking about this, but a search for "climate" turned up zilch.

What will the climate in Skyrim be like? Consistently and universally similar to the Jerall Mountains = snowy and bleak?

Or will there be lowlands/fjords/south flanks of hills/sunny high vales that are lush and verdant?

I'm frankly a little puzzled by how "climate" is represented in Oblivion, and having never played Morrowind yet that is my only reference. It always seemed a bit unbelievable that we go from semi-tropical in Leyawin to temperate in Chorrol and then abruptly to either taiga or alpine (whatever it is supposed to be) in Bruma. My explanation for that has always been: "Its a game. They wanted to have some varying landscape, even if the actual distances did not make sense with the degree of climatic fluctuation," an abstraction I don't have a problem with. It certainly would not be a better game if the climate and ecology varied in a more "realistic" fashion.

But given Skyrim's much smaller than Cyrodil on the Tamriel map, and also given Skyrim is _all_ north of Cyrodil, what is the plan here?

I certainly hope the devs figure out a way to make Skyrim at least a bit varying and not all look like the Jerall Mountains in Cyrodil, but without this unrealistically drastic climatic variation problem in Oblviion becoming even more pronounced.

I hope it's more like Morrowind in terms of area

Blizzards, rain, snow, aurora borealis (maybe not defined as "weather" but still a graphical display of climate) and more.

This is what I pictured before GI and the map, though it might not be the same directions any longer:

Basically, the southern parts should be all snow, and the northwestern parts could have fjords (since it's closer to Highrock), but the northeastern and centraleastern parts could always look like Sweden/Norway/Canada in springtime - imagine thick pine forests and melting snow with creeks etc. The areas close to the border to Hammerfell could have leaf forests, but it gets colder and more snowy closer to Cyrodiil (since we know, from Oblivion, that northern Cyrodiil is snowy). This would make sense since the southern parts of Solstheim were warmer - I can imagine there are warm currents coming from Vvardenfell, but mayeb they don't reach more than half of Skyrim.

Could you elaborate on that a bit?

All the screenshots I've seen so far have had gloomy and dull weather. Mist, overcast or cloudy.

I really want to see some clear weather with beautiful shining sun.

Oh come on!? I really hope they don't make the whole place like that: blizzards, rain, sleet, etc.

I lived in Quebec for a few years, so I happen to know that during summer these northlands are quite lush and green, even if they don't have enormous hardwood trees. Obviously the fact that these games do not represent seasons makes representing that a puzzle. But in any event, there are ways it could be done. For example, lowland areas being more green; littoral areas being more green; southside areas or areas sheltered by north nor northeastern mountains more green.

I really hope they have worked in some variety there: a whole province of rocky, gloomy, dismal, cold, snowy, bleak just doesn't sound as interesting as Cyrodil was.

Well I wonder why they haven't shown any pictures of clear weather...
All I've seen is concept art images with clear weather.

I want variety. Some gloomy and dull weather - OK, it can be very atmospheric. But it shouldn't be overdone.
Some stunning clear weather too...
I wonder why the GI had zero images of that. If I were Bethesda I would show the GI journalists one really beautiful sunset/sunrise image, but that's just me.

I just hope it rains in Skyrim.

Sure, snow is great - but a creepy thunderstorm with random lightning flashes would be the perfect time to battle a Dragon!

One of the concept art pictures on the wall in the latest GI video showed a town in the rain - and it looked AWESOME! :goodjob:

Blood will rain from the sky. In other news, I want to squeeze your avatar.

Hope you like lotsa snow and mountains.