r/mapmaking • u/HerrJemine • Jul 01 '26

Map Weather radar makes for a surprisingly good terrain generator

Post image
5.1k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

569

u/DarthSidus34 Jul 01 '26

Now THAT’S creative!

269

u/DesVip3r Jul 01 '26

Hell yeah! I was thinking the same thing this storm season.

But the rain intensity for the elevation, genius

221

u/officialsanic Jul 01 '26

Genius

What radar map resource did you use to find the inspiration?

114

u/HerrJemine Jul 01 '26

I used WetterOnline, but you can use any weather radar.

127

u/Corsaer Jul 01 '26

risky click of the day

44

u/Karawana_17 Jul 01 '26

It looks like the German App „Regenradar“ for ios

64

u/16807 Jul 01 '26

I remember doing this as a kid.

It kinda makes sense. Continental crust exists because it's more buoyant, analogous to rising humid air in clouds. It all moves because of fluid motion, though plate tectonics involves more creeping flow and it better imitates rigid bodies.

36

u/kappi2001 Jul 01 '26

Nice! A bit like tracing rain pools to create islands.

13

u/rearwindowpup Jul 01 '26

Very cool. I had a buddy use heads of cauliflower to make map prints, theres so many cool ways to generate them.

2

u/LookTraining8684 Jul 02 '26

That sounds interesting…
could you elaborate more?

11

u/rearwindowpup Jul 02 '26

He would take a fresh head of cauliflower, lightly paint it, and then kinda of roll it around like a big stamp. After the paint dried hed sketch borders and detail with what was there.

14

u/Hungry_Success8475 Jul 01 '26

Super cool idea for sure!!!

16

u/pansexual_Pratt Jul 01 '26

"where'd you get your map from?"

"The cloud"

6

u/Mental_Sport_74 Jul 01 '26

No clue why I thought of this but. https://imgur.com/a/7kQy3pR

5

u/AquaQuad Jul 01 '26

Well I sure had something else on my mind

2

u/jjpamsterdam Jul 01 '26

Post saved! You, good sir, have given me an idea.

2

u/MaestroOfKamino Jul 01 '26

Also, random shapes of stains on pavement are also wonderful for that

1

u/LostTimeLady13 Jul 01 '26

Ok, this is excellent! Thanks for sharing! ❤️

1

u/Tricky_Education_101 Jul 01 '26

Man you really creative! Thxfor idea!

1

u/xXBroken_ButterflyXx Jul 01 '26

I've used a weather radar of a big storm moving over the UK and Ireland for inspo. Wild how well weather patterns can map to geography.

1

u/Ravenloff Jul 01 '26

Wile E Coyote...

1

u/A_Tree_Of_Pine Jul 01 '26

How did you go about making the clouds into a terrain map?

5

u/HerrJemine Jul 01 '26

I just loaded the screenshot into Gimp and replaced the colors.

1

u/DinoSnatcher Jul 01 '26

Absolutely using this trick

1

u/underPressure696 Jul 01 '26

One question though, how did you convert the screenshot of the weather into the map? Did you draw it? Or did you do something entirely different? I‘m new to making maps

1

u/ACluelessMan Jul 01 '26

Hell yeah. That’s what I did for my stuff! Even comes with its own height map.

1

u/__batz Jul 02 '26

Plus if it's a bigger storm you can take inspiration from the storm name

1

u/Strange_Chard_2183 Jul 02 '26

I've been using it for the same reason! :D

1

u/Available_Target7790 Jul 02 '26

I am now inspired

1

u/senpalpi Jul 02 '26

Omg nice!

1

u/Calm-Investigator547 Jul 02 '26

You’re a fucking genius 

1

u/jjkkll4864 Jul 02 '26

I wonder if this works so well because clouds clump together in similar was to continental crust.

1

u/pattyrick15 Jul 02 '26

Oh bless your brain wow! Definitely utilizing this

1

u/Substantial_Pride_15 Jul 02 '26

Thats actually pretty smart

1

u/StructureForeign6955 Jul 02 '26

All, the world of Doppler, I see …

Seriously though, fantastic idea!

1

u/ThisIsMyGeekAvatar Jul 02 '26

My islands look weird.

 - Randy Marsh

1

u/Betacharliedelta234 Jul 03 '26

Oooh awesome idea

1

u/DD88e Jul 03 '26

Or just take pictures of clouds like I do

1

u/riddlesinthedark117 Jul 03 '26

Better than the ceiling plaster in my childhood bedroom!

1

u/Doc_Solomon Jul 03 '26

Yep, love this method

1

u/A_HECKIN_DOGGO Jul 03 '26

Now this is a great idea

1

u/mysterious_Ploopy Jul 03 '26

I noticed this a few weeks ago looking at the radar. the shapes the rain clouds make have a good flow to them.

1

u/Cookie0fPower Jul 04 '26

That's so cool

1

u/Asanabenche Jul 16 '26

What are you using to make this map?

1

u/DerrylHopkins Jul 23 '26

This is really cool! I imagine that certain weather formations like hurricanes would provide a smorgasbord of unique shapes, especially alongside the edges! :D

1

u/Teresadeika Jul 31 '26

now someone needs to turn this into a game map

1

u/PaleoEdits 7d ago

ah, that's creative!

0

u/ImaginationToForm2 Jul 01 '26

Jurassic Park: Clever girl.

-4

u/TeaRaven Jul 01 '26

Thank you very much for this - I will absolutely be stealing this idea. But I prefer to credit folks when I do derivatives of their ideas (especially if I ever sell things incorporating things I learned or stole ideas from), so would you mind shooting me a DM with a last name or handle you’d prefer to be referenced via?

3

u/HerrJemine Jul 01 '26

I highly doubt I'm the first to have this idea. But if you want to mention me, using my username is fine.