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All Cities Skylines 2 natural disasters and how to prepare for them

No matter how beautiful your city is, Mother Nature will always show you who's boss, so here’s how to prepare for every Cities Skylines 2 natural disaster.

Cities Skylines 2 natural disasters: A sprawling metropolis from city-building game Cities Skylines 2

What are the Cities Skylines 2 natural disasters? Picture it: you’ve built the perfect metropolis, the traffic runs efficiently, and your citizen are all content with their lot. A haven, right? Well, it is until disaster strikes – the power of nature is an awesome thing indeed, and if you don’t prepare for every potential Cities Skylines 2 natural disaster, you will find that all your hard work is undone in an instant.

The Cities Skylines 2 release date is almost upon us, with eager players already reading up on potential Cities Skylines 2 mods, dreaming of the most fantastical additions to what will be the most fantastic of cities. Be wary, though, as even the most efficient metropolis can be destroyed by a rogue tornado, or burned to a crisp by a roving forest fire. Here’s every Cities Skylines 2 natural disaster and how to prepare for each one.

Cities Skylines 2 natural disasters: a view of a city taken from the harbour at sunset.

Cities Skylines 2 natural disasters and preparation

A natural disaster is a weather event that goes beyond the usual peaks and troughs of temperature and precipitation – these are extraordinary shifts in your environment that can cause damage to your infrastructure and even loss of life if not adequately prepared for.

Here is every natural disaster in Cities Skylines and how to prepare:

Cities Skylines 2 natural disasters: a helicopters rushes to pour water on a forest fire.

Forest Fire

A forest fire is an uncontrolled burning of plants in a natural setting – a forest, in this case – and can quickly get out of control, posing a threat to life and property. To prepare for a forest fire, you can place Firewatch Towers near large areas of vegetation, and once spotted, a Firefighting Helicopter Depot can dispatch airborne firefighters to extinguish the blaze before it gets out of control.

Forest fires can occur at any time, but the threat is increased during the warmer, drier months when the vegetation is more susceptible to burning. Your regular firefighting department can deal with forest fires to an extent, but only when the inferno reaches a road, as they cannot drive through wooded areas.

Cities Skylines 2: a ship passes by a city in the wintertime.

Hail Storm

When the weather is just above freezing, you are at risk of a hail storm occurring. Hail storms batter your city with large chunks of ice, causing damage to buildings and chaos on the roads. There is no real way to prepare for a hail storm – just ready yourself for a large repair operation once the onslaught of ice is over.

Cities Skylines 2 natural disasters: a tornado rips apart a city.

Tornado

Perhaps the most terrifying of natural disasters, a tornado is a huge, swirling vortex that destroys anything and everything in its path. Buildings can be destroyed by a tornado, and your citizens are at massive risk of injury, or even death if they stay out in the open.

Build an Early Disaster Warning System to give your city a heads up when a tornado is on the way, and ensure that you have Emergency Shelters in convenient places so that your citizens can take shelter and stay safe until the natural disaster is over. Prepare yourself for a huge cleanup operation once the tornado has passed.

That is every natural disaster in Cities Skylines 2 – while you are at the whim of your environment, there are measures you can put in place to reduce the negative impact they have on you and yours. Check out how big the Cities Skylines 2 map is so you know where to place your natural disaster preparations, and if you absolutely can’t wait for Cities Skylines 2, we have a list of the best management games, and the best city building games here so you can scratch that creative itch.