Never start a story with "It was a Dark and Stormy Night"

How to use weather in a descriptive passage

Lately, I've come across discussions that advise a writer to avoid recounting the weather in your descriptive passages, as it can seem cliché, boring or slow the pace of the writing. All true, but I'm not against using it; I feel used properly and sparingly it is a wonderful tool for creating mood and atmosphere.
The key, I believe, is not making the weather the focus of the passage; it must lurk in the background.

The following examples of weather in descriptive passages are excerpts from my short story collection, Inside Realms:

From the story Elite of the Blood -
"It was night, and I was standing in the rain, the cold wet seeping into my skin and hair. I had closed my eyes, and I could hear the thrumming of the raindrops as they hit the ground. But it was a heartbeat I was trying to hear."

I used the weather as both mood and a contrast to what the protagonist was trying to hear.

From the story Song Rise -
"The mountain track was snow packed, still locked in a northern winter chill, although it was the beginning of spring.

He left his footsteps behind him like tiny echoes as he marched through the frozen vista scrambling to be reborn. The wind around him blew bitter, a hungry lament keening down from the caves.

"To freeze my bones," he growled through the gale. "No doubt I'll lay dead somewhere before this day is through."

He kept on walking, passing the directional marker within the hour, as the sky darkened steadily and storm clouds became the heavens.

The clouds hung low; fat, ebony shapes devouring all substance, their threat enclosing the landscape in a sunless expanse. Hoped for snow came as ice, sharp and fast, coating the trees that he plodded past, frosting them in fingers of crystal.
The ghostly panorama lay out before him, a dreary shadowed white, shades of grey and silver muting what little colour had survived the frigid weather."


With this piece I set the atmosphere, and an obstacle for the character. It also illustrates the importance of his task, and reveals some of his personality.