Weather (XCX)

Weather is a mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles X. Every outside area has weather which changes periodically. This has both aesthetic effects and gameplay effects:
 * The appearance of the sky naturally corresponds to the weather. Some weather patterns affect the appearance of the air itself — for example, periodic lightning arcs in the air can be seen during Electromagnetic Storms, and visibility is drastically reduced during Spores.
 * Different weather patterns may increase or decrease a character's stats. This applies to characters on foot, characters in a Skell, and enemies, although the extent of the stat change typically differs between these three cases.
 * Certain enemies only spawn during specific weather patterns.

Weather changing
Weather patterns last for several real-life minutes (in-game hours) at a time. When the weather changes, the pattern it changes to is (usually) random; the likelihood of any given weather pattern following is dependent upon the time of day. Rainbows are the exception: a rainbow will always occur after rain, heavy rain, thunderstorm, or brimstone rain.

Weather patterns by area
The set of possible weather patterns, as well as their probabilities of occurring, varies based upon region.