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[Dunamisdeos]

I want to live in a temperate zone where the water freezes over in the winter. How can I tell if the water will freeze come winter?   

[Garath]

in the choosing embark site screen, you can usually see things like cold, temperate, warm, hot or scorching

i think those are most of the options
this is not about temperate forest, it can be a - warm-  temperate forest
I think a temperate temperature usually has frozen winters, cold often also frozen in spring and autumn
It actually does differ from site by site, sometimes my area would be frozen from early autumn to late spring, just a bit away from that it would be late autumn - early spring

figure out where the pole is on the map and stay close to it, but not too close- cold is not a good biomeimo

[Dunamisdeos]

Hmmm. Ok.... that more or less confirms what i've been doing. Now another question... will the river neccesarily freeze every year? Are some winters warmer or colder than others? Does it freeze according to the ambient temperature at the turn of the season, much as certain materials will melt when exposed to certain levels of heat? I need to quantify this!!! 

[Garath]

the rivers I had didnt freeze always at the same point in a month, but its pretty regular. Its like the first snow, you dont know when it'll be exactly, but when a season turns you know what to expect, soon

[Dunamisdeos]

BUT! Do they freeze one year and not the next? Because I've been getting peeved and abandoning a fortress when it doesn't freeze. If this is the case I need to quantum facepalm. 

[Garath]

I've never had a river freeze one year and not the next. seeing that my average fort length is 5 years (sometimes just 3 if its uninteresting, went up to 12 with on that was interesting. Still learning though), i woulndt consider that conclusive, but still convincing

[Dunamisdeos]

Alright. This has been a great help! 

[i2amroy]

Scorching = All water save rivers evaporates quickly all year
Hot = Never freezes but water evaporates during summer
Warm = Never (extremely rarely) freezes
Temperate = Freezes part of the year
Cold = Frozen most of the year
Freezing = Always frozen

Depending on where you embark in the temperate zones (whether you are closer to the warm or cold ends) they can range from freezing for a extremely short period of time to being frozen for almost half of the year, but they will freeze every year for some period of time.

[Garath]

much better than my explanation

I like a frozen river, you can mine under/around it in winter and put some safegueards in place (DO NOT FORGET SAVEGUARDS)

[daggaz]

My river freezes over on occasion, but only in short sections.  Which is really, really bad.  Cuz its a major defensive feature of my fort, which Id much rather have than to build a giant wall.

If I fill a tunnel under the river with magma, will it keep it from freezing?

[FuzzyZergling]

My river freezes over on occasion, but only in short sections.  Which is really, really bad.  Cuz its a major defensive feature of my fort, which Id much rather have than to build a giant wall.

If I fill a tunnel under the river with magma, will it keep it from freezing?

It should, if the magma is directly underneath.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

My river freezes over on occasion, but only in short sections.  Which is really, really bad.  Cuz its a major defensive feature of my fort, which Id much rather have than to build a giant wall.

If I fill a tunnel under the river with magma, will it keep it from freezing?

Yes, magma will melt ice and ice boulders. It sets adjacent tiles to a comfortable hot tub temperature.

Note that all phase changes are extremely fun and perfectly capable of killing a dwarf.

[Jerg]

I embarked in a temperate location but the river never freezes (it's been 7 years now). Maybe it's on the border of a warm biome?

[i2amroy]

My river freezes over on occasion, but only in short sections.  Which is really, really bad.  Cuz its a major defensive feature of my fort, which Id much rather have than to build a giant wall.

If I fill a tunnel under the river with magma, will it keep it from freezing?

Keep in mind that the only way to unfreeze the edges though is to run a constant magma drain off the edge of the map (which is both a pain to set up and consumes quite a bit of FPS). This means that unless you exit part freezes first you are going to end up with a river that drains itself dry every winter (not saying that that is a bad thing, just pointing it out).

[Dunamisdeos]

wow, this is all REALLY helpful... now one more question 

I tried to embark in an area that had a volcano and was temperate. it was clearly in the colder latitudes, but it never froze. volcano was clear on the other side of the map. Can this affect one's chances of a frozen river?
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PS: God I love a community that is willing to monocle about for a while on academic discussions like this.