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* On [[One Piece|Grand Line]], there're 4 different kinds of islands - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Islands. Obviously, that (partly) explains the ridiculously unpredictable weather changes. It also causes that [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|Drum/Sakura Kingdom]] and [[Shifting Sand Land|Alabasta Kingdom]] to be neighbour countries.
** Played straight with {{spoiler|Punk Hazard that has [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World]] on its one side and [[Lethal Lava Land]] on another. It was caused by the battle between Admirals [[Playing with Fire|Akainu]] and [[An Ice Person|Aokiji]].}}
* At the end of every episode of ''[[A Piece of Phantasmagoria]]'' we see the titular planet,
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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*** Alternately, one could view the Oz in ''Wicked'' as a counterpart to the United States, with urban, forest-filled Gillikin as the Northeast; agricultural Munchkinland as the Midwest; swampy Quadling Country as the South (more specifically, the Mississippi Delta and Florida Everglades regions); and the barren Vinkus as the Mountain West. Even Oz residents' opinions of certain regions mirror American regional stereotypes. Quadlings are seen as filthy and uneducated. Gillikin is where the best universities are and the Gillkinese come off as snobbish. The Vinkus is seen as wild and untamed, and something of a wasteland... etc.
* Appears in ''[[Star Trek]] [[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|III: The Search for Spock]]''. The planet in question had recently been created with unstable technology, which made for interesting climate patterns.
** In the
* In the comedy ''[[Caveman]]'', one character gets swept by a river that is situated in an arid prehistoric landscape and ends up in a "Nearby Ice Age".
* The titular [[Zootopia]] is created just this way, with a tundra-like area sandwiched between a jungle-like and a desertic one. It's justified as it was intentionally planned that way, to make up the most of its space and resources.
== [[Literature]] ==
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== [[Machinima]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': "The Burning Plains are next to the Freezing Plains? I bet there's some pretty wet plains in between." And it turns out there are some pretty wet plains in between, since after going through the burning plains, but before the freezing plains, they cross a swamp. OK, so it's not exactly a plain, but still, [[The Ditz|Caboose]] [[Dumbass Has a Point|got something right]]!
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* Can be truth in fiction when the reason for desert/not desert is not obvious. For example there are parts of the world where there is no rain, but copious mist. This condenses on the trees and waters them. However, if all the trees are cut down, the saplings can't take advantage of this and nothing can grow. There are attempts to make artificial rain catchers (sails) to get the trees kick started again. Such an area could have a forest in one place and a bare desert next to it.▼
* Likewise rain forests may be self sustaining but can be destroyed. For example the rich soil is continuously used and replaced, thus once the trees are gone the soil is also gone in 2 or 3 years. Farming is abandoned, leaving bare ground that radiates far more heat than the forest ever did, preventing rain. I.e. forest and desert are the only two stable equilibria, and could theoretically be close to each other.▼
* Another example occurs with the largely sheltered canyons of, for example, eastern Washington state, which allow you to have a large river running through bone-dry desert/[[Insistent Terminology|xeric shrubland]].▼
* The Eastern U.S. has a relatively continuous climate that gradually changes from cold in the north to hot in the south, and from wet in the east to dry in the west. The West is mostly desert, everywhere, except for Washington, Oregon, and Northern California, which are strongly defined by the complex boundaries between forest and desert. You can stand almost anywhere in Silicon Valley and see brown hills on one side and green ones on the other. If you park off I-84 in Oregon you can walk from forest to desert, along a big river flowing sideways through a mountain range. It does happen.▼
* [[New York]]'s [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/26_-_New_York_-_Octobre_2008.jpg Central Park] (warning: huge file) has a perfect transition with the cityscape. It's manmade though.▼
* Israel. In a country smaller than New Jersey, there are snow-capped mountains, a desert, coral reefs, and the lowest point in the world.▼
** This is partially due to the immigrating Jews who made some changes in the scenery, like drying up some swamps to avoid certain diseases (notably malaria in Hadera) and planted trees native to their homelands due to being homesick. A notable example of both was planting eucalyptus trees to drink up the swamp water (though few Jews actually did come from Australia), an attempt that was [[You Fail Biology Forever|mostly a failure]], as the trees drank water from the ground and not the swamps themselves. (They eventually resorted to using other types of trees.)▼
* [http://www.desertofmaine.com/ The Desert of Maine], 40 acres of, well, desert-like landscape surrounded by mixed forest with little brooks. TECHNICALLY it's not an actual desert as much as it is the product of over a century of [[Idiot Ball|utter agricultural mismanagement]]. And technically it's glacial silt, and not sand. It doesn't stop them from having a huge Fiberglas camel on site for photo opportunities.▼
* In [[Australia (2008 film)|Australia]], parts of South-East Queensland have small pockets of sub-tropical rainforest in water catching hollows and along creek beds in what would be relatively dry eucalypt forests.▼
** On a larger scale the Great Dividing Range separates the relatively well watered eastern seaboard from the dry plains that gradually transition into the deserts of the interior. The transition as you go over the range can be fairly abrupt, especially as you go further north.▼
* Using the Indus river as a dividing line, Pakistan has lush farmland to the eastern banks (the Punjab), desolate wasteland on the western banks (Balochistan), the sea shore and [[Mega City]] of Karachi in the south, and snowcapped mountains in the north (Khyber-Paktunkwha).▼
* One of the reasons so many production companies love New Zealand so much is it's large diversity in a relatively small area. You have cities, mountains, beaches, forests, and pretty much everything ''except'' desert wedged into a couple of land masses roughly the size of Colorado. Watch a show like ''[[Power Rangers]]'' (post ''Ninja Storm'') to see just how diverse New Zealand is.▼
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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** Happens in Khorvaire too. Consider Karnnath and The Mror Holds, who have weather like northern Europe or Canada, with lots of snow. Slightly East of them are Lazhaar Principalities, with a Caribbean-like weather and palm trees. Must be a ''really'' warm ocean. Regalport (the main Pirate town in a tropical weather) is further north than Frostmantle and Rekkenmark, both of whom are described as cold. So warm ocean indeed. Similarly, Breland is supposed to be a tropical, rainy country, but most of the neighboring lands are depicted as temperate. [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/eberron/images/f/f4/D%26D_-_4th_Edition_-_Eberron_Map_Khorvaire.jpg Khorvaire] also has rivers that start nowhere and occasionally go nowhere, and lakes alone in the middle of nowhere.
* ''[[Planescape]]'' has the ultimate example in Limbo, the Plane of pure Chaos, where pieces of the plane randomly and seamlessly shift between being completely dominated by one element or another.
* ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' is horrible about this trope. Rivers go any which way (including uphill), cities and whole geographic features are outright misplaced onto the wrong ends of the Empire because the mapmakers weren't paying attention, and to top it all off, it
** The ''Magic of Rokugan'' supplement, when discussing what makes an Imperial road instead of a plain old road, mentions many roads that are on no maps are actually forgotten Imperial roads to the point and there's too many such roads for anyone to sort out which aren't Imperial roads. This leads to an implication [[Lawful Stupid|the maps are horrifically wrong and nobody is allowed to question them]].
* Fully justified in the [[Ravenloft]] setting for [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. The Land of Mists is composed of artificial landmasses created and sustained by mysterious Dark Powers. Each landmass is separate from the others and bordered by the Mists, in which they drift. The Core (the largest) has a truly patchwork appearance, because each subregion is a "domain" specifically formed to imprison an individual [[Big Bad|darklord]], and its geography and climate has far more to do with that darklord's culture and personal issues than reality. For example, the domain of Lamordia has a far colder and more wintry climate than its neighbors, and the tropical island of Markovia is less than two hundred miles off the coast. The shape of rivers is even more bizarre, as some rivers literally flow into or out of nowhere, apparently emanating from the Mists themselves. There is also a massive hole (the Shadow Rift) cut straight out of the middle of the Core where other domains used to be (they got relocated during a plane-wide cataclysm).
* In one fan-created variant of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', you shuffle basic lands into a "board", start out with one creature, and the lands on boards where your creatures are can be tapped for mana. This results in ''Urza's Saga'' plains (in Serra's cloud world) being next to...anything. And islands being surrounded by land. It gets weirder if you add nonbasic lands.
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** Isn't helped by that fact that a bright and sunny, almost Mediterranean fishing village (Catherby) is positioned right next to a snow-drenched arctic-esque craggy hill. Might be justified by the altitude, though - if the world wasn't compressed for player convenience (to the point of two longitudinal or latitudinal minutes being the minimum distance a player can travel, doing so in 0.6 seconds at walking pace), the White Wolf Mountain would possibly be quite high and capable of being cold. Ice Mountain is located at the same latitude.
*** Additionally, the very northern reaches of the world are so cold, the player takes all-stat damage. The Ghorrock fortress is located even further north. Squeeze past an ice block into the Wilderness, and without changing latitude, you'll reach a scorched land with surface lava features in seconds.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' provides a near
** Unova, from Pokémon Black/White. Route 4 is essentially a small desert, surrounded by forests, with the transitioning area being about as long as a building.
** There are other examples throughout the series. For example, in Sinnoh (where the fourth generation takes place), a snowy city is fairly close to a tropical island, and in Hoenn (third generation) there is a rainy route near a desert route.
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* ''[[Inazuma Eleven]] GO'' has a desert area sandwiched between an icy tundra area to its east and a beach/water area to its west. Justified in that they were man-made (the nearby windy valley area even has gigantic fans to create the wind), complete with walls separating them.
* ''[[Kirby's Epic Yarn]]'' does this [[Incredibly Lame Pun|literally]]. Patch Land is split into several distinct areas, each with its own unique ecosystem and no transitional regions whatsoever.
* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[A Valley Without Wind]]'', where a recent cataclysm has shattered reality and made continents out of "time shards" from different times and places at complete random, so it's entirely possible to have a region of deep Ice Age adjacent to some Lava Flats. Also mentioned are powerful and very hostile forces holding the world together this way; putting one foot across the border of a time shard is fatal (unless you're a [[Player Character|Glyphbearer]]).
* Very common in most games by [[Nifflas]]. The geography tends to change ''halfway through a screen,'' indicating a new area.
== Webcomics ==▼
* Seen [http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=225 here] in ''[[The Noob]]''.▼
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* You know how there's always snow on the ground in ''[[South Park]]''? When they went to Nebraska the snow gave way to green fields, with the boundary being ''exactly'' at the Colorado-Nebraska state line. Or was the state line being placed exactly on the snow-grass boundary?
* Similarly, there was a [[Bugs Bunny]] cartoon where the drab, unpleasant Northern U.S. was separated from the verdant, flowered South precisely at the Mason-Dixon Line.
* ''[[The Flintstones]]'' did it in one episode. Rain up until a border.
* Justified in the ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]'' episode "The Eye of the Beholder". On the planet Lactra VII the Enterprise crew finds deserts right next to forests, and Mr. Spock comments on how unnatural it is. It's eventually revealed that the alien Lactrans did it to make their planet a giant zoo.
* ''Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1,001 Rabbit Tales'' has a lush jungle near or in the middle of an Arabian desert.
▲== Webcomics ==
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* Seen [http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=225 here] in ''[[The Noob]]''.
▲* Can be truth in fiction when the reason for desert/not desert is not obvious. For example there are parts of the world where there is no rain, but copious mist. This condenses on the trees and waters them. However, if all the trees are cut down, the saplings can't take advantage of this and nothing can grow. There are attempts to make artificial rain catchers (sails) to get the trees kick
▲* Likewise rain forests may be self
▲* Another example occurs with the largely sheltered canyons of, for example, eastern Washington state, which allow you to have a large river running through bone-dry desert/[[Insistent Terminology|xeric shrubland]].
▲* The Eastern U.S. has a relatively continuous climate that gradually changes from cold in the north to hot in the south, and from wet in the east to dry in the west. The West is mostly desert, everywhere, except for Washington, Oregon, and Northern California, which are strongly defined by the complex boundaries between forest and desert. You can stand almost anywhere in Silicon Valley and see brown hills on one side and green ones on the other. If you park off I-84 in Oregon you can walk from forest to desert, along a big river flowing sideways through a mountain range. It does happen.
▲* [[New York]]'s [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/26_-_New_York_-_Octobre_2008.jpg Central Park] (warning: huge file) has a perfect transition with the cityscape. It's manmade though.
▲* [[Israel]]. In a country smaller than New Jersey, there are snow-capped mountains, a desert, coral reefs, and the lowest point in the world.
▲** This is partially due to the immigrating Jews who made some changes in the scenery, like drying up some swamps to avoid certain diseases (notably malaria in Hadera) and planted trees native to their homelands due to being homesick. A notable example of both was planting eucalyptus trees to drink up the swamp water (though few Jews actually did come from Australia), an attempt that was [[You Fail Biology Forever|mostly a failure]], as the trees drank water from the ground and not the swamps themselves. (They eventually resorted to using other types of trees.)
▲* [http://www.desertofmaine.com/ The Desert of Maine], 40 acres of, well, desert-like landscape surrounded by mixed forest with little brooks. TECHNICALLY it's not an actual desert as much as it is the product of over a century of [[Idiot Ball|utter agricultural mismanagement]]. And technically it's glacial silt, and not sand. It doesn't stop them from having a huge Fiberglas camel on site for photo opportunities.
▲* In [[Australia (2008 film)|Australia]], parts of South-East Queensland have small pockets of sub-tropical rainforest in water catching hollows and along creek beds in what would be relatively dry eucalypt forests.
▲** On a larger scale the Great Dividing Range separates the relatively well watered eastern seaboard from the dry plains that gradually transition into the deserts of the interior. The transition as you go over the range can be fairly abrupt, especially as you go further north.
▲* Using the Indus river as a dividing line, Pakistan has lush farmland to the eastern banks (the Punjab), desolate wasteland on the western banks (Balochistan), the sea shore and [[Mega City]] of Karachi in the south, and snowcapped mountains in the north (Khyber-Paktunkwha).
▲* One of the reasons so many production companies love New Zealand so much is it's large diversity in a relatively small area. You have cities, mountains, beaches, forests, and pretty much everything ''except'' desert wedged into a couple of land masses roughly the size of Colorado. Watch a show like ''[[Power Rangers]]'' (post ''Ninja Storm'') to see just how diverse New Zealand is.
{{reflist}}
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