Why are Dawn's Shadow and Azir brown?

[ecohansen]

In this map, the region to the east of the Unclaimed Hills is a beigey brown-green that doesn't look  very verdant at all.  But it should be a temperate rainforest like the American Pacific Northwest: we have storm systems coming off the ocean and going over a narrow strip of low ground before being forced upwards by mountains.  As the clouds rise, they should drop their rain, making Dawn's Shadow a temperate rainforest (google "rain shadow" if my explanation wasn't clear).  Even small mountains and large hills can cause this effect: look at the regions of high rainfall in North Carolina and West Virginia.  My only guess is that the storms are SO violent that vegetation can't take hold at Dawn's Shadow, but I'd like to see if anyone else has suggestions I haven't thought of.

 

Similarly, what about the great desert around Azir?  There are green regions at the same latitude, so it's not solely a latitude effect like 30 degrees north on Earth.  Maybe the mountains to the north of the desert funnel Storm systems northward, leaving the Azir region with relatively little rainfall.  The geometry doesn't seem quite right for that, though...

[Jondesu he/him]

Do we know that there's a connection between green areas and fertile crops? I don't think we can assume that, since rockbuds are one of the main crops and I didn't think they were green. I suspect all of those areas can grow crops, just likely not green ones (only Shinovar would have any significant amount of grass that was always visible anyways).

jW

[Arraenae]

There definetly should be vegetation in Azir. Maybe there's so much rain that the grass and other plants spend most of their time inside the rocks hiding from the rain? Then you could have a lot of vegetation that isn't visible from a distance.

[Erunion he/him]

We have WOB that Roshar is actually very Lush, and I'm inclined to agree - our vision of a barren, rocky Roshar, while cool, is only true during certain seasons and right before Highstorms. 

 

What we've seen is that there's TONS of grass that's very high, while one of our heroes (I think it was Shallan's journey, but it could have been Kaladin's) is travelling to the shattered plains they discuss how the grass is high and wavy, but pulls back into the stone in a ring around their caravan leaving them a rocky 'road'. 

Jah Keved, around the Davar estate at least, is described as being COVERED with vines and vegetation. 


As to the OP's questions; I would assume that stuff near the Origin is arid because it's been scoured clean. Nothing that can't hide can survive highstorms with the power and ferocity that they hit the East coast of Roshar. So you'll see some particularly tough plants, but much less vegetation overall (and fewer large plants).

Azir could just be a bit less vegetative, and that's that. More of a drier, plains like region than verdant Jah Keved.

[Iarwainiel I she/her]

I find it difficult to not think of the climate of the continent / islands as being controlled by where it falls on a globe - like, our own poles are cold, while the equator is warmer. But isn't Roshar's climate is more dependant on the highstorms than on the planet's geography? Anyone have a WoB on this? (I know I could search, but it's nice to have discussion. :-)

[natc]

Well, no axial tilt, so any "seasons" are mostly just a translation quirk regarding fluctuations in climate. Outside of the Weeping and highstorms weather sounds like it's mostly random, though temperature variance occurs since the continent is huge (Frostlands)

[kenod]

weather isn't the right word, except for highstorms and the Weeping they don't have any rain or stuff like that so it's probably just temperature.

[DreamEternal]

weather isn't the right word, except for highstorms and the Weeping they don't have any rain or stuff like that so it's probably just temperature.

But they do have rain! And normal thumderstorms! And I think snow is mentioned once.

[Erunion he/him]

They do have 'normal' weather, but irregular seasons. We've seen it in book, and Kaladin hates it (he especially hates the weeping, but there's normal rain a few times too).

Most precipitation build up is dropped during high storms, but not all.

[Charlie.x.3000]

Maybe Brandon is referencing League of Legnds, where Azir comes from a desert (Shurima). /s