#the lowest was -21C/-6F

[holycowworshipper]

apparently the WARMEST it got yesterday in my town was -14 degrees C (7 degrees F) please jesus

[sanctamater]

masterpost: how columbia works. 

welcome to the definitive edition of how the fuck columbia works, how high it actually is, what the climate is like, and how it’s probably built. i’m dumping all of the information under the readmore to read at your own leisure and will probably have this linked somewhere in the blog seeing as what canon information we have about columbia is contradictory at best, not to mention the air quality at 15,000 ft in the air is probably terrible and they are also probably freezing. how can they have vegetation? who knows. but i digress. this masterpost is divided into four parts:

it is and is not quantum physics (archived) 

columbia’s true altitude 

columbia’s climate and seasonal rotation 

columbia’s levels

1. HOW DOES COLUMBIA FLOAT?

this post is from my friend’s abandoned blog ( @quantcm-blog​ )for archiving purposes, just in case something happens and the post is one day no longer viable. it can be found here. lawrence did a lot of work figuring this out and i’d like to keep that work visible. if the link is no longer viable, i have archived it on the wayback machine here. this post is the longest in the masterpost, as it contains extremely relevant information about the state of levitation: as the game explains it, for columbia to float, all of the usa would have to be frozen via liquid nitrogen underneath it. columbia floats via atomic physics as well as quantum physics and quantum levitation. lawrence explains it quite nicely, and it’s well worth the read.

2. COLUMBIA’S ALTITUDE 

the rocket’s voice over system counts upwards to 15,000 feet in the air before we see columbia. this altitude, while below the death zone, is simply not probable nor is it viable. people would be dying due to altitude sickness, it’d be too cold for any of the clothing we see in the game and there would be very sparse vegetation. 

that being said, when columbia was first launched, they were likely at 3,000 feet in the air, about 2,000 feet below mount tozi in alaska. after the boxer rebellion, when they simply elevated themselves and disappeared above the clouds. i’m saying they disappeared above the lower cloud level (6,500 feet) as we can still see details of the world below from columbia, and the world below can also likely still see columbia on a clear day. i’m putting columbia at about 6,500 feet to 7,500 feet. 

3. COLUMBIA’S CLIMATE, AND THE WINTER MIGRATION

columbia has multiple levels; some higher up, some lower down, depending on their use and function. if columbia were truly at 15,000 ft in the air, it would be unlivable, and too cold to do anything in. that being said, i have calculated the average winter and summer temperatures in columbia from about 1900 against the average temperature in the usa during the summer and winter from 1900 using the lowest and highest temperature points respectively.  This has been calculated using a temperature breakdown formula and the weather station that takes the temperature of the peaks of Washington’s Mount Olympus, which has several elevated peaks about this altitude. 

HIGHEST RECORDED                        PROBABLE TEMPERATURE AVG TEMPERATURE IN                                 IN COLUMBIA USA: SUMMER                                   UPPER                    LOWER

23C (75F)                                            14C (57F)                 19C (66F)

LOWEST RECORDED                        PROBABLE TEMPERATURE AVG TEMPERATURE IN                                 IN COLUMBIA USA: WINTER                                    UPPER                     LOWER

-7 (18F)                                               -21C (-6F)               -15C (5F)

these are just the average temperatures the usa experienced in the year 1900. that being said, i do not think columbia stays stationary. within the lighthouse there is a docking information sheet showing the days of the week and times that columbia docks for any pilgrims to enter it, and when they leave. the full schedule is, when one takes into account the pins on the map within the lighthouse, as follows:

Flagstaff, AZ

Colorado Springs, CO

St. Louis, MO

Chicago, IL

Rochester, NY

Portland, ME

New York, NY

Philadelphia, PA

Washington, D.C

Raleigh, NC

Savannah, GA

Montgomery, AL

Shreveport, LA

Amarillo, TX

with that in mind, i do not believe that columbia winters in the northern hemisphere of the usa. they would go down south and spend the winter months there, where it would be warmer and they would have an easier time staying self sustaining.

4. COLUMBIA’S LEVELS

personally, i headcanon that columbia has at least three tiers of platforms; the lowest being just at the cloud cover (6,500 feet), the middle being at 7,000 feet, and the last platform being at 7,500 feet. each tier would have specific purposes given that each would have a differing temperature. 

the lowest of the tiers is reserved for farming and some leisure. greenhouses, produce shops, grocers, butchers, et cetera. this is the warmest of the tiers and has some of the lushest parts of the city; boasting many beautiful parks. it is also where the beaches (battleship bay) would be at, given that the water would be warmest there. the middle tiers are mostly residential for the upper echelons of columbian society. still decent air quality, still pretty warm, still a lot of potential for greenery. administration, banking, postal offices, fashion, home goods, and housing would be here. the highest tier would likely be for finkton and shanty town; allowing the fumes from the factory to keep above them, and not bother the platforms below finkton.