Three categories and nothing in between: simulated weather has consequences that persist and apply to everybody, partial weather has consequences in one direction only, and cosmetic weather changes the picture and the soundtrack.
Rain accumulates in the ground rather than on the screen. Wet clothing costs warmth for hours afterwards, a storm you sheltered from badly is still affecting you two in-game days later, and the ground itself remembers where the water went. The most complete weather system we have logged.
Tracks fill in at a rate governed by wind speed, and almost all of the game's tension comes from that one decision. Drift accumulation is consistent enough across storms to be planned around, which is the difference between a system and an effect.
A fifty-one minute cycle is long enough that reading the sky becomes a skill rather than an interface element. It took about nine hours to learn to forecast, and from that point the game is a different and much better one.
Volumetric fog of real technical quality, applied to the player camera and nothing else. Detection distances are identical in clear air and in a whiteout, which converts the best-looking thing in the game into an unannounced penalty.
Rainfall removes the watering chore and costs nothing at all: no flooding, no rot, no delay, no mud. Weather with an upside and no downside stops registering as weather within about two hours, which is a shame in an otherwise generous game.
