Do we have any idea of the scale of Highstorms?

[Mathologist]

Do we have any information as to how fast Highstorms/the Everstorm go, how big they are, how many Highstorms there are, their frequency, or really any information about how they work? I figure that if we know how a normal Highstorm works, we might be able to predict how fast the Everstorm would spread and the kind of effects we could expect from it. 

[Duncan]

One thing I notice is that although the Alethi war camps were hit by the highstorm from the battle (they brought recharged spheres to Urithiru), their parshendi weren't infested by the red voidspren (assming the info from the stormfather is correct about that). This tells us that the everstorm must be smaller than the highstorm, and assuming that the battle was the location of the centre of both storms (which seems reasonable given both causes for the storms were there), then we also know the everstorm can't be as large as the shattered plains.

 

I may have missed something about the storms in the aftermath perspectives at the warcamps, but I think this holds up.

[Gelrad]

The Everstorm have opposing direction than the Highstorms, thats why the Everstorm didn't reach the camps yet...

Edited March 23, 2014 by Gelrad

[darkanimereal1]

Okay, we know a few things about the highstorms. They take about one day to move all the way across the the continent. We also known that they generally come about every five days (once a week).

Also, they have a list of what they think are predicted Everstorm dates from the epitaphs in WoR. Let me go find the link and I'll post it

[name_here]

The dates are Highstorm dates; we've matched them up with the countdown. The Highstorm appears to cover the entire continent south-to-north, while on the Shattered Plains it has hurricane-force winds in the Stormwall and so presumably moves faster than a car on a highway, and loses strength overland. There is apparently only one Highstorm, which circles the globe. The Everstorm is doing the same in the opposite direction. The frequency of Highstorms is variable, but apparently the Weeping is the only time they're ten or more days apart.

[CorwinofAmber]

I thought that at one point someone in the book explicitly stated that there isn't just one highstorm that just loops around the globe because, given what they know about the size of the planet, that would mean highstorms would be much more frequent.

 

It appears that, without a natural barrier, there is no place to go on the continent to avoid the highstorm. But the supercontinent is only in the southern hemisphere; does the highstorm reach from pole to pole? Is there a point far enough north or south that you could go to escape the highstorm? If the highstorm does in fact stretch further north and south than the supercontinent, does it become a highblizzard in extreme latitudes?

[name_here]

 None of them knew what would happen next. Would it round the world and come crashing into the western coast? Were the highstorms all one storm that rounded the planet, or did a new one start at the Origin each time, as mythology claimed?

Scholars and stormwardens thought the former, these days. Their calculations said that, assuming the everstorm moved at the same speed as a highstorm this time of year, they’d have a few days before it returned and hit Shinovar and Iri, then blew across the continent, laying waste to cities thought protected.

Page(s): 1063, Words of Radiance

 

I expect it moves more slowly over the ocean, gathering strength. As for how far north it stretches, apparently far enough you can't sail past the northern edge between Highstorms.

[ccstat]

In the last chapter Dalinar has this conversation with the Stormfather:

"This Everstorm will come again, for certain?"

REGULARLY, LIKE HIGHSTORMS, THOUGH LESS FREQUENT. YOU ARE DOOMED.

While it is possible that the two move at different speeds, I interpreted that to mean that the scholars are wrong and that there is more than one highstorm and only one Everstorm to account for the different frequencies. Edited March 23, 2014 by ccstat

[CorwinofAmber]

I expect it moves more slowly over the ocean, gathering strength. As for how far north it stretches, apparently far enough you can't sail past the northern edge between Highstorms.

I seem to remember Sanderson saying the highstorms were both meteorological and magical. I can't seem to find any scientific, meteorological reason for a storm to move slower over water than over land (if someone can contradict this, please educate me). This suggests to me that the highstorm completely dies down before a new one arrives.