Hot summer rain on a beach of black sand -- Iceland in 2127

This article is archived, and is no longer part of Vekllei canon.

Just as Iceland’s initial history was reshaped into the image of Vekllei some centuries ago, so too has the real-world climate and weather been altered. Cool Icelandic summers have been usurped by volatile days that can be as low as 5C (40F) or as hot as 30C (85F+). Technically speaking, the unstable Atlantic pressure oscillation, of which Vekllei anchors as the Vekllei low pole, can pull in bitter cold from the Greenland currents, or warmth from the Azores tempestuously.

So it is that in summer, on a beach of black igneous sand from the volcanoes of this place, hot rains can descend instantly and beat pedestrians until the rains vanish, minutes later. Winters are equally unstable — they shift between unlivable cold and sporadic thawing periods.

This unusual climate is not unique to Vekllei. Europe is fucked, meteorologically speaking, by a series of el nino summers and instant winters that wrack Germany, Austria, Italy, and so forth. The Adriatic seems to see more gloom than mediterranean sun these days.

The equatorial deserts of the world, Nevada included, are mere degrees away from unsurvivable. With temperatures frequently breaking 50C (125F) throughout the year, it thins the population of Southerners too old or too poor to avoid the heat.

North Africa is a husk. There is no water and no food. There is a reason there are mass graves all across the shores of the Black Sea, and why Europe tastes the boot. There is a reason the southern African states are crumbling.

East Asia is hot and wet.

So these girls march on in the summer rain-storms, not quite conscious of the ridiculousness of enjoying one of the world’s more temperate climates in a country they once called Iceland.