Pokemon Sword and Shield have both taken a lot of things from previous games to the next level, and the weather plays a huge part in both evolving Pokemon that you get and also picking up particular Pokemon in the wild. When you’re just idling in the game and you’re curious about what weather is taking place in a particular part of the Wild Area, it’s possible to have all that information at your fingertips but what good is that information if you can’t interpret the Pokemon Sword and Shield weather symbols? We’ll give you a hand, we promise. 

Pokemon Sword and Shield Weather Symbols Guide

So, you’re curious about the meaning of the different weather symbols in Pokemon Sword and Shield. It’s important to know how to read all that information at a glance, especially if you’re out hunting for specific Pokemon who only appear under certain weather conditions. There’s no real point needing to split hairs on what a particular symbol might mean and hours of looking for the right conditions are probably gonna have you a bit cross-eyed anyway so here’s a chart with all the symbols and what they actually mean next to them.

Fog is a bit of an outlier as a weather condition because you can only really reliably find it once you’ve actually beaten the game. Weather conditions are introduced as you pick your way through Pokemon Sword and Shield, but we’ve found that fog is essentially the hardest one to come by unless you’ve started kicking through a fair amount of the content and then wiped the floor with your enemies as the Pokemon Champion. However, you’ll start seeing the Fog symbol pop up around your Wild Area adventures when you’re starting to crack into raids with mates so it’s good to be familiar with it anyway. If you’re particularly fussed about the climate you can actually also change the weather in the game, and we’ve got just the guide for you if that’s the route that you want to take. 

Now that you’ve got our guide to the Pokemon Sword and Shield weather symbols, it should be much easier for you to identify whether it’s absolutely necking down with rain somewhere or if you’re just experiencing a bit of a sandstorm. Better get brain training with all that image association; our chart will definitely help with that. Need a hand with anything else as you gallivant around the Galar region? Check out these other tips and tricks that we’ve put together for budding Trainers:

• Fossilized Dino Pokemon Sword and Shield Guide – How to Use It
• Pokemon Sword and Shield Hammerlocke Gym Guide – How to Beat Raihan
• Seismitoad Pokemon Sword and Shield Location Guide