Ok, I'm not a specialist in the area of geography and how it affects climate so I figured I would ask this here and maybe someone can better explain this to me (assuming there is an explanation):

The northern parts of Cyrodiil (as seen in Oblivion), such as Bruma and its surrounding areas, are all snowy and frigid. However, Falkreath Hold and The Rift (i.e. Falkreath and Riften) are both non-snowy areas for the most part, with even some more swampy/grassy parts. Is there a reason the climate did not continue to be as frigid as Bruma was as the map of Tamreil (Cyrodiil --> Skyrim) moved farther north?

....I don't know if my question is 100% clear so please let me know if I need to clarify. And thank you for any help with this... it has been bothering me for a long time now!

that is an excellent question, and where as i dont have the answer, i too would like to know this.

The mountain range between Skyrim and Cyrodiil acts as a barrier allowing warmer air from the Skyrim plains to accumulate to the north of the mountains.
South of the mountains cold air coming off the mountains is keeping the Bruma region cool.

Yeah kind of like how the Sierra Nevada mountains form a barrier between california and Nevada and don't let Nevada get much rainfall.

hmmmm...makes sense I suppose

I also look at it this way - since there are no seasonal changes in the game (maybe in weather patterns, but not in actual terrain), the northern half is perpetual winter, the southern half is in fall, and the center is stuck in spring.

Actually, there's quite a lot about Tamriel that makes zero sense from a climate POV.

haha true, i guess we can just say it MAGIC!

:-) Agreed. It's just a game.

Magnets.

The areas are representations. The Falkreath area is what Skyrim would look like in the summer, while areas like the Pale are show the wintery side of Skyrim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0yQg8kHVcI

How do they work?!

Couldnt altitude play a part? Not like any maps of Tamriel show altitude other than mountains. Also weather pressures and sea breezes etc. Although I admit I dont understand them, I live in South Wales, it rains a ton, like most days seriously. Slightly more East, it rains far less. Britain all over has odd weather, some places more northern than others are warmer. So someone with good knowledge of weather systems could probably explain away this anomaly. Although I'm sure its more just because the devs wanted more variety and none of them are meteologists.

The Bruma area is simply in the higher elevation of the Jerall mountains while the Falkreath area is lower in elevation and the Jeralls are blocking the warm air of that area from reaching the Bruma areas.

The warm winds of Hammerfell keep Falkreth warm and temperate, and keep the Reach and most of the interior of Skyrim warmer than the Jerrals and the Northern Coastline. The area near Riften benefits from the Volcanism to the North heating the colder air flowing South from the Sea of Ghosts.
The windflow affecting the Weather can be seen in the Northern Ranges, Snowstorms and bad Weather are extremely common the higher somone ascends into the Mountains, and Geological Evidence of seasonal Glaciation is evidenced by the extreme valleys and inaccessible mountainsides. The Pass between Riften and the Province of Morrowind is one of the few passes that is open year round, and the heat rising from the Skar region is probably responsible for the area remaining Ice free, and the existence of Riften itself.

True. They(and I(we?)) ideally want to have seasons but instead we have these representations.

This
There are a few examples in our real world aswell
Plus there are no seasons in game
One example i can think of are the alps north of the alps have in general harsher winters then south of the alps( italy)

Area where Bruma is located is higher above the sea level than the Southern area on Skyrim. Also the mountains can affect somehow on the climate and which is the most important thing we don't know how the sea currents are on Nirn. Those are the most important thing to know when we make any suppositions about climates - they are always depending on sea currents.

Good explanation, the area of falkreath and riften is a huge big plain only interrupted by the throat of the world so it's also possibly lower above the sea than Bruma.