Lifestyle

Winter Is Here; What Does That Mean For Westeros?

By Team Morecast
15.07.2017

Winter is Coming. The well known prognostication and motto of House Stark is expected to come to fruition with a vengeance in Season 7 of Game Of Thrones. It will no longer be winter is coming, winter is here.

Despite production delays due to a lack of winter weather across the UK and Ireland, Westeros will see its climate shift starkly to winter.

After the longest summer any Westerosi can remember, many have forgotten what a winter climate means for each region. Just how cold and snowy will it get? The Morecast team takes a peek at the winter climate for several Westeros cities to help you prepare for season 7.

Kings Landing

King’s Landing in the summer. Credit: Game Of Thrones Wiki

Kings Landing got pretty heated in season 6 after Cersei used Wildfire to cause an explosion at the Great Sept. During the summer years, King’s Landing’s climate was rather arid with warm to hot temperatures. But, with winter arriving, winds from Beyond the Wall are expected to penetrate deep into Westeros bringing frigid air and maybe a charge from the Others. Temperatures will drop to below freezing and many inhabitants may encounter snow for the first time.

Queen Regent Cersei seemed too distracted this past season to start planning for winter. Will the town have harvested enough crops to feed the entire city for several years? With Daenerys likely on her way to King’s Landing in season 7, Cersei may have more pressing concerns than worrying about the common folk’s comfort during cold winter nights.

In the real world, King’s Landing was filmed in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Winter doesn’t get quite as cold in Dubrovnik with an average low temperature of 43°F (6°C) in January. However, their summer weather is fairly to King’s Landing with an average high of 84°F (29°C) in July and very little rain.

Castle Black / The Wall

Castle Black and The Wall. Credit: Game Of Thrones Wiki

Further north in Castle Black, the Night’s Watch is already feeling the impacts of winter. During the summer years, temperatures remained below freezing and snow often fell heavily at times. However, a few days during the Great Summer were just warm enough to cause portions of the wall to melt, making it look like the wall was “weeping”.

With winter officially here, the Night’s Watch will face the worst of winter head on as they prepare to defend the wall from the White Walkers. Temperatures will be so cold it will hurt to breath. Blizzard conditions will make it near impossible to see. For those north of the wall like Bran and Mera, travel conditions will be treacherous. But with the White Walkers lingering nearby, winter is the least of Castle Black’s worries.

The scenes at the Wall and Castle Black were predominantly filmed at Magheramorne Quarry in Northern Ireland. Despite the freezing winter weather depicted in the show, Northern Island sees very little snow and averages around 36°F (2°C) in January. Because of this, the majority of the winter weather scenes north of the wall were shot in Iceland in locations like Skaftafell, where heavy snow is much more common.

Dragonstone

Dragonstone. Credit: Game Of Thrones Wiki

Daenerys is rumored to be heading towards Dragonstone, which had previously belonged to her ancestors of House Targaryen. When Stanis had last occupied Dragonstone, the summer years proved to be overcast and damp. With the winds of winter headed towards Danny’s ancestral land, temperatures should quickly drop to freezing and the damp conditions will likely turn to ice. With the dragons possibly headed to Dragonstone, we could see plenty of “fire and ice”.

Dragonstone and its shores were filmed in coastal Northern Ireland where the weather can also be damp and overcast. While Northern Ireland does not see much snow at the lower elevations, the region is prone to intense non tropical cyclones. Will Daenerys encounter a wicked winter storm as she approaches Westeros on the water?

Winterfell

Winterfell. Credit: Game Of Thrones Wiki

Winter is here, and the Starks have been warning us of its arrival since season 1. The Starks may be one of the few houses who have planned ahead by harvesting plenty of food to last through winter. The thorough planning may be because Winterfell’s winter years are more brutal than the southern regions. Similar to Castle Black, bone chilling temperatures and heavy snow are the norm during the winter. But we’re hoping for a Stark reunion that is sure to warm even the coldest of hearts.

Similar to multiple Westeros cities, Winterfell is also filmed in Northern Ireland where the summers are mild and the winters are chilly and wet, but with little snow outside of the mountains.