A few questions regarding dynamic weather

[EdisonTrent]

I looked around, and apparently this game will have a dynamic weather system, which is great to hear! But I've been unable to find out a few less important, but no less interesting facts about it.
Will GW2's dynamic weather system...

1. Occur often? I understand something happening sparingly can make it that much more awesome, but a lot of games these days seem to use their weather systems a little too sparingly, resulting in things like very rare rain. I want escapism, not typical Australian weather! :P

2. Have a lot of variety? Having rain and storms is great, but can we expect to see things like sandstorms (where appropriate), snow and maybe even heavy winds / cyclones? Apparently weather will influence, and be influenced by dynamic events, so one would expect some more extreme weather created by more powerful beings, here's hoping.

3. Be constricted to seasons? Whether it's shorter, ingame seasons or actual, real-life seasons, this could be interesting. It would reduce the allure of the usually rare rain and storms significantly, however.

4. Actually have clouds? This may seem like a silly question at first, but a few games seem to make the mistake of having it rain when the sky is still sunny, or the cloud cover is sparse. Building on this, will it be possible to see if weather is coming by the direction of the clouds, or will they merely serve as background flavor?

5. Influence our character? I don't mean stats-wise or anything, that'd be silly, but more cosmetic details like your armor becoming soaked, or your Charr character's fur dripping in the rain would be very welcome, especially coming from a game which has already shown itself to look quite good from a graphical / style point of view. Perhaps you could even buy an umbrella for your town clothing set.

Yes, I'm aware these questions are probably too esoteric (or NDA breaking) to answer, but I thought I'd put them out there anyway, for discussion's sake. What are you expecting from GW2's weather system, something more ambitious, or simply a bit of flavor?

[Wrathonia]

They mentioned somewhere that you could trigger a dynamic event chain (I think it was if you failed another event) that would make it snow in the entire zone which would open up new dynamic events throughout the zone dealing with the weather.

[Larynx]

This is what I've heard: Completing or beginning certain events will alter the weather. For example, the sky might get dark and ominous as a boss approaches.

That's about all I know. The finer details I don't think have been revealed.

edit: and to your second point, yes there is actually a level 13 event in the norn area where this shaman causes a blizzard and a shit load of particle effects.

[Marn]

4. Actually have clouds?
5. Influence our character?

4. According to this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=wzaiiEvO7ZU) clouds run across the world map, so maybe you can look up in the sky and see clouds...I mean I'm pretty sure I've seen them, would be weird for there not to be any to be honest.
5. Maybe! Would be cool if the rain pattered off your armor and whatnot, I mean this is a very graphical game so I could see maybe some sorts of misty effects from rain hitting you; maybe not soaking wet charrs but still, if Arenanet thinks it will be cool they put it in haha.

[Hockeyhacker]

4. Actually have clouds? This may seem like a silly question at first, but a few games seem to make the mistake of having it rain when the sky is still sunny, or the cloud cover is sparse. Building on this, will it be possible to see if weather is coming by the direction of the clouds, or will they merely serve as background flavor?

Mistake of having it rain while sunny? Umm it can and does rain when its sunny more often then you would think, at least in Colorado where I live it rains when there is not a cloud for 30 miles at least a handful of times a year. I know its not a common occurrence in many places, but it does happen.

[grandpab]

Mistake of having it rain while sunny? Umm it can and does rain when its sunny more often then you would think, at least in Colorado where I live it rains when there is not a cloud for 30 miles at least a handful of times a year. I know its not a common occurrence in many places, but it does happen.

It's pretty common in Florida.

Triggering weather with events sounds pretty badass.

[Spl4sh3r]

They mentioned somewhere that you could trigger a dynamic event chain (I think it was if you failed another event) that would make it snow in the entire zone which would open up new dynamic events throughout the zone dealing with the weather.

From what I remember they didn't say snow, they said snowstorm/blizzard. As a result for failing a dynamic event.

[zardon3001]

The dynamic events causing certain weather conditions will be really cool, especially dark clouds bringing in a huge dragon.

[Wynnyelle]

I can't believe I had never heard of this before. It sounds so cool. I love rain and snow in real life, and it's nice that there's going to be dynamic weather. There are so few games where there is weather at all, much less dynamic weather. Gotta love the little things. And the fact that weather affects events in the area is even cooler.