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[Kalalification]

So I had a river flowing through my map for like 5 years, but one winter it froze and hasn't unfrozen. In the upper part of the map however, there is something really weird going on: the water is completely gone. I thought rivers were supposed to have constant flows?

Go to 19:25 in this video to see what I'm talking about.

Let's Play Dwarf Fortress Part 8: A Count, A Pile of Gold, and a Manager

Also, I'm doing an LP of this fortress, so if you're interested in a name, sign up on my YouTube channel page.

[boyhowdy]

Is the upper part of your embark a different biome than the rest?  Assuming that's the down-river end, it could have thawed earlier than the rest of the river and the water will flow off of the map.  With nothing to replenish it (all the water up stream is still frozen) you end up with a length of empty river bed.

Not sure about the river that used to thaw out staying frozen, though.  Does anyone know what happens when you turn weather off?  I've never done it, so I'm not sure if stays in it's last state (ie, turning off during winter = permafrost), or resets to some default level.  Also, I've always assumed that seasonal temperature changes were consistent year to year, but maybe that's not the case.

Which reminds me, I need to go over to the suggestions forum and recommend that Toady add global climate change 

[Sutremaine]

If it bothers you, you can put a raising drawbridge right across the north end of the river. That way, when the north thaws without being replenished from the south, it can't get off the map.

I've read that freezing times can vary from year to year. It's not really well understood.

[SmokedRWA]

Yea it definitely looks like separate biomes. I had the same thing happen where my embark would thaw out at different times of the year because it was on multiple biomes. Also turning off weather stops rain and blizzards and I believe thaws and freezes are connected to temperature. When you turn off temperature everything stays the way it was when you turned it off. As far as turning it back on after a few seasons have passed I have no idea.

[Flying Dice]

If you turned off temperature while the river was frozen, it would stay frozen. (And vice-versa)

[JmzLost]

I haven't checked in 31.x, but in 40d a river would have "river source" tiles at the edge of the map it was flowing from.  I have seen "river source" tiles for a river that starts in the middle of the map, so I assume they haven't changed in 31.x.  You should be able to check the edge tiles on the south end of the map, because it really looks like your river flows from south to north across 2 biomes.  The northern biome thawed early, when the southern biome thaws it should refill the river.

JMZ