Introduction
It had been ten years this year since Skyrim was released. The popularity and longevity of the series have largely been due to its large modding community that had been breathing fresh life into the game.
With thousands of mods available for the game, no two modded Skyrim will ever be played the same. With Skyrim Special Edition’s release, the vanilla game’s graphics were improved, and new systems were put in place, but, naturally, it is not perfect.
This list will help you improve your immersive experience with the game’s weather and nine mods that take those improvements even further.
SSE Vanilla Weather and Lighting
Before looking to improve SSE (Skyrim Special Edition) with mods, it should be noted how much weather and lighting have improved from the original Skyrim to the Special Edition.
With the Special Edition, game images have a higher resolution that shows crisp details on surfaces. Lighting had also been given better ray tracing and ambiance to make the Special Edition the definitive vanilla experience for the game.
Climates of Tamriel
Considered as one of the best weather mods in the original Skyrim, Climates of Tamriel is just as impressive in the Special Edition. The sheer file size of Climates of Tamriel will tell you that this mod will significantly impact the base game. It will feel like a complete overhaul to the game’s weather system.
Climates of Tamriel adds hundreds of weather variations and lighting effects that are not found in the base game. The weather can now be cloudy, stormy, foggy, and more. You can even experience snow blizzards. The mod has also added improved sunrises and sunsets to make Skyrim come alive.
It also has replacements for almost all the vanilla weather-related systems, textures, particles, and sounds in the game. Lighting, for example, was improved to create more realistic thunderstorms and fogs. Clouds have been given new textures and even volume so they can have an impact on the sun rays falling on the ground. Your evenings will also be improved by the addition of the auroras glistening in the night sky.
The new weather system also has new sounds to accompany them. There are new thunder sounds as well as exterior and interior rain sounds.
There are also optional plugins that players can easily install if they want to customize the game even further. The plugins will impact lighting and darkness for interiors, dungeons, and even night time.
Vivid Weathers Definitive Edition
Vivid Weathers is a compilation of different mods working together and are compatible with overhauling the vanilla weather. And create breathtaking effects without even installing an ENB.
Vivid Weathers uses and combines the features from mods like Climates of Tamriel and Real Skyrim Snowflakes, Vivid Clouds & Fogs, Vivid Snow, and so much more. Because of that, Vivid Weathers is the most significant weather mod on Nexus.
Vivid Weathers creates more than 500 different weather patterns and variations by combining the various mods and revamping the vanilla weather. From light snowfall to torrential blizzards and from a drizzle of rain to violent thunderstorms, Vivid Weathers will give the local Skyrim weatherman a tough time predicting the weather,
Sky-gazing will now be constant as the mod adds more than 150 cloud textures, night skies that show stars and galaxies, and impressive sunrises and sunsets that will take your breath away.
Vivid Weathers also adds new effects and enhancements. Snow flakes are now more transparent and more discernible. Storms are now howling and Fogs have different levels of density. It even has 16 new sounds of thunder.
Vivid Weathers is not perfect, though, since it’s a combination of different mods that can sometimes create problems, but it’s worth trying for the price of seeing just how beautiful Skyrim can be.
Rustic Weathers and Lighting
Rustic Weathers and Lighting enhances the rustic and medieval aesthetics that Skyrim has. The mod does not feel like the additional settings are shoe-horned into the game but feels more organic.
It adds fog, lens flares, god rays, new weather, and its own set of storm sounds. Though much smaller than the previous two mods, this mod is more focused and streamlined than expansive.
Dolomite Weathers
If you want to bring the Lord of the Rings to Tamriel, this mod is the way to go. Dolomite Weathers brings the fantasy world of Skyrim to life. This particular mod makes everything look sharp and gorgeous. It is like an ENB that enhances the weather.
This mod is perfect if you want the colors of a fantasy world to pop out. This mod is lightweight as it only tries to modify and improve the vanilla weather system.
This mod makes sunsets linger longer. And it adds another dimension to the snow particles and additional storm sounds that are unlike the repetitive vanilla sound.
Natural & Atmospheric Tamriel
Natural and Atmospheric Tamriel certainly fits its name. Unlike Dolomite, NAT reals in fantasy in favor of realism. At least, so it seems to me, nothing feels too over the top or stylistic in this mod, something many certainly appreciate.
I’d also say that out of this entire list; this one sticks the closest to the vanilla weather. That being said, everything is still redone. The most notable feature of this mod is the included spell, which allows you to play with nearly all aspects of this mod, including enabling and disabling effects and even turning on random weather.
It is also included in the FX option similar to ENB that is lightweight and three options for configuring bright, dark, or balanced weather patterns. Popular features are also included, like sunlight effects, particle effects, and subsurface scattering.
Obsidian Weathers & Seasons
Obsidian Weathers and Seasons adds around 90 new weather to Skyrim. Not only that, but it adds new environmental and cloud lighting as well, and this includes subsurface scattering.
The different regions are given specific weather systems to make traversing the other regions immersive. Aside from the weather, the seasons also change depending on the current in-game month.
Other notable features of this mod include rolling fogs that hide towns and locations, pushing you to do more exploration to uncover what’s beneath the fogs.
Aequinoctium Weathers & Seasons
Aequinoctium Weathers & Seasons reworks the game’s weathers and seasons by adding unique climates that can be found for each season.
You start by choosing from the many style options that range from vibrant to fading, rustic, and cold. The mod also gives you shorter days and winters. It adds new storm sounds and lighting effects for characters.
Cathedral Weathers and Seasons
Cathedral Weathers is one part of a visual overhaul compilation called the Cathedral Concept that aims to improve the game’s look with little to no impact on performance.
This mod improves the textures of the game to show changes in seasons and weather effects. The game’s brightness, saturation, bloom settings for outdoor and indoor settings can also be adjusted.
The mod also has four main seasons, with the rainy season that is all distributed in the game’s twelve-month calendar.
The settings can be adjusted using the MCM menu. But if you prefer the in-game customization, you can always use a new Dragonborn power called “Cathedral Meditation power.”
This will give your avatar total control over the climates of Skyrim. This new power will let you control brightness, saturation, contrast, tint, and bloom in real-game-time. Your avatar can also change the season and the level of darkness of night. You can now fulfill your dreams of being a weather wizard.
Cathedral Weathers and Seasons’ most impressive contribution is that it has no noticeable impact on the game’s performance, so you can add other mods that enhance different aspects of the game.
True Storms
True storms is a weather overhaul mod that improves the heavy vanilla weathers of Skyrim. It adds new rain and snow particles, features, and visual effects. IT also adds new sounds to make rains, winds, and thunders more realistic.
This mod adds a few new weather types like heavy rain, dense fog, dust storms, and blizzards. It also includes different interior sounds so that the pitter-patter of rain would be different when you’re under other structures.
It makes sense now that you will not hear rain when you’re deep inside a dungeon or in some parts of the castle, but it would be louder when inside a house or the jarl’s longhouse. Lastly, True Storms does not localize weather systems, so you should now expect snow in Whiterun.
Conclusion
The different weather mods of Skyrim enhances the vanilla game to create better immersion and experience for players. No one mod is flawless, so it all depends on the preferences of the player.
But these are just a handful of the mods that are available for download. There are other mods out there that you can always look into. With the longevity of Skyrim, there is definitely a weather mod out there that you can use to improve Skyrim the way you want to play it.
