I've read that they blow ships off course, becalm them in the warp, strain Gellar fields, and even cut whoe sectors off from each other. Warp RIFTS on the other hand are instances where the warp bleeds into reality like the Eye of Terror and does nasty things to real space. Well at the end of Lure of the Expanse (I believe) warp storms are described as being visible! Is this accurate when compared to the rest of 40k fluff? THis leads me to three questions:

1. If warp storms are visible, what would have been the implications of this during the Age of Strife when most of the galaxy was completely shut down due to warp storms? Were most populated areas under the shadow of the nebulous, bruised miasma of warp energy? If Terra was cut off, would the night sky look like a picture of hell?

2. If warp storms are visible then doesn't that mean the Koronus Passage is as well? Wouldn't it resemble a simple alleyway between two giant nebulae?

3. Could a visible Warp storm simply be a "Warp Rift?" Could this be an error or a lack of explanation on the part of the writers?

Thanks!

Exoviper said:

The Eye of Terror is/has been described as a warp storm. So, yes they can be visible.

Link to the Lexicanum entry

Sure, but I've also seen it described as a Warp Rift hence question #3.

The fluff seems kinda vague on the subject.

But it seems that while Warp Storms can bleed in to real-space, it doesn't always happen. While a Rift, like the Eye of Terror, is a case where the barrier between the Warp and reality has broken down so much that it's become permanent. And even the warp at calm is not really.. well, calm.

And as for the Koronus Passage. I'd liken it more to walking down an alley where the walls have razor blades all over them, razor blades coated with poison. And sometimes that alley gets narrow, or changes shape, all of a sudden.

As far as I know, Warp storms are only visible to the naked eye if they are bleeding into the material universe either trough a rift, a place where the barriers between the material and the immaterial are thin, or if the storm is just so powerful it starts to bleed through under its own power.

Yes, they can.

The only kind of warp storm that should concern you is one where you do not have an active Gellar Field up and/or can't avoid it.

Multiple examples of warp storms bleeding into reality exist in fluff. Theres a great crusade example of an astartes ship entering a storm with many assuming it was just a nebulae.

In a grey knights novel near the eye of terror their ship had to put its gellar fields up to withstand the real space effects of the warp storms in their area.

A warp storm in the empyrean can make a real space area inaccessible due to the voidship's inability to navigate the storm. In real space the same can be true. If the bleedover is too severe a world or area can be cut off entirely.