And all across the state Hurricane Charlie was putting up such massive fright.

Well that was Friday about 8:45 pm. It is now Sunday 8:32 pm and I 've had power for a total of 2 hours. Now I can't complain I have my life, my car, my pet, and my apartment. Power was the only thing I lost so I had no problem putting up with it unlike so many others.

Ok so what has this got to do with Shadowrun you ask? Simple seeing as I was just in such a bad hurricane I was woundering just what technology and/or magic is used if any to stop and/or lessen the damage from acts of nature? Just a thought I had like I said seeing as I just went through Charlie.

I hope you are alright, the images I saw were frightening to say the least. I've only been in one while I was staying in Arkansas, but it was already too much to my tastes (and they said it was a "relatively small" one.)

As for SR, I guess that even with magic, there is nothing they can really do about hurricanes and other "natural hazards". I guess it would take a lot of magicians doing some sort of Ritual sorcery with very high drain to just divert one from its course.

I guess thought that protection is much more effective, a barrier spell put over a ferrocrete shelter would probably support the power of a hurricane.

Of course, now in SR, there are new "awakened" hazards doubling the effects of a Hurricane, like the simple manastorm. Those should negate any advance in the protection field.

Storm and Wind spirits might have the ability to alter a storm's course slightly, or even redirect some of the damage. Weather magic is an entirely different facet of Shadowrun magic which we know almost nothing about. They talk about power weather magic and groups that use it, but I would argue it deserves a seperate catergory of ritual magic. I wonder if it does not require special metamagics... or the calling of very powerful spirits.

Technologically, they have been working on things like this.

Can someone describe what a 'Mana Storm' is, or in what places it is referenced. This sounds really awesome, and I would like to know more.

Well, the NAN became possible because a bunch of shamen were willing to conjure more severe weather events than a rating 4.9 hurricane...

Theoretically, with the proper hardware and a sufficiently accurate model of weather patterns, you can change any atmospheric behaviour by forcefully changing ambient temperatures in key locations. With proper orbital systems, it might be possible to cancel many large weather events before they get started. You just need a big enough IR lamp pointed at the right spots.

Then you can get into the theoretical consequences of increasing the thermal energy in the atmosphere, but I doubt it could even compare with the GGD incited volcano eruptions.

[edit]Mana Storms are the biggest example of wild magic yet, see Target: Awakened Lands (aka, "Target: Aussies") for details on these rampant expressions of sorcery

Crap, I don't have that one, like how serious are they? Can mundanes tell that they're going on?

Mana Storms destroyed Sydney and now blockade it.

When cats and dogs fall from the sky, that's the sprinkles. When faceless demons howl around you and the sky turns to a swirling cauldron of fire, mundanes usually get the picture. Of course, sometimes it's only present on the Astral...

When they are getting hit by them, yes. Manastorms can have very intriguing or devastating effect, much like a gigantic area spell (turn every poor souls to frogs for some time )

Guard works against natural causes.

Hey, when was the last time you saw a frog of the non-European variety stopped at a security checkpoint?

~J

So a mana storm is like a city-sized area effect spell with completely random magical effects?

It's usually closer to a automobile sized vortex of mana churning out one or two spells rapid fire at everything nearby. Large area weather effects are not uncommon, but the actual vortex being large enough that an entire city is unreachable is only on record once (unless I'm forgetting an example).

I'd bet general construction technology has improved a lot. Use of transparent construction plastic instead of glass would do wonders, for one. As I understand lot of the roofs come off because a window gets blown out and the wind gets inside where the roof isn't built to deal with it. Increased use of Beamcom instead of wires, or buried fiberoptic instead of elevated copper, probably reduces the impact on power and communications. Improved computing likely means better storm prediction and tracking, so affected areas are better predicted. GridGuide would mean that traffic snarls during evacuation would be lightened, though obviously not eliminated.

On the other hand, interagency cooperation is harder where you have megacorporations whose activities aren't subject to national laws. The SINless may not get the word, or have vehicles with which to evacuate. They'd certainly be harder to count and wouldn't live in neighborhoods that are nearly as structurally sound as the mobile home parks that got torn apart the other day. I'd say given Shadowrun's dark future and seas of urban poverty, natural disasters would be even worse. For the upper class, it would be no problem, of course.

To return this back to the original topic, spirits can only affect up to a certain amount of force (and that's not meant to be capitalized). A Force 8 Storm Spirit is powerful, but he's going to look at something like Hurricane Charley and then turn around and tell his conjurer, "You're on your own."

Where the most success has been in fighting the elements has been the advances in construction technology. Ferrocrete and plasteel materials are very weather-resistant, ferrocrete being heavier than normal concrete and therefore harder for wind forces to affect. Buildings reaching above 100 stories are commonplace in the world of Shadowrun -- such skyrakers have to be built to resist hurricane-force winds, and in light of terrorist actions such as 9/11, even stronger attacks.

Storms aren't meant for PCs to stand up and become superheroes by conjuring an ultra-powerful spirit to make the rain go away. A PC can go outside and chant "Rain, Rain, go away" all he wants -- odds are that the storm will make the PC go away instead, with a quick trip to the next county courtesy of high winds or lightning. But they do make wonderful cover for shadow activity. Of course it also gives the GM the opportunity to mess with the players even more...

Very good Kegetenshi, but the fast air over the roof is only half the problem. Yes it has lower pressure, but roof vents will equalize this pressure difference very quickly. It is the air coming in through the front and--through the weirdness of aerodynamics--the back of the house that causes the problem. Yes, fast moving air has lower pressure, but when that air is stopped or slowed, the pressure increases. So if the air coming in the front and back (i.e. through broken windows) outpaces the air escaping the roof vents, then the roof goes pop.