It is said in Sinnoh that the desert flows from Hippopotas' nostrils. Wild Hippopotas have long been shooed away from farmland or hunted outright not for fear of them eating crops or livestock, but out of the belief that they would destroy arable land, dry up rivers, and end the rain.

This fear is an exaggeration – not enough sand flows from a single Hippopotas' nose or even a small but viable breeding population to change the weather - but it is not wholly without merit. People have long noticed the swirling sand around each individual Hippopotas, and this sand creates desert conditions in a single pokemon battle. And long ago, when the wild Hippopotas of Sinnoh were exiled to a single road on the island in the far north, Sinnoh's one, tiny desert was born, and it remains dry not from poor soil or low cloud cover, but from its large population of these sand-breathing pokemon.

But Sinnoh's people were willing to sacrifice this road, rather than drive the Hippopotas to extinction, because there were times they still needed them. When torrential downpours and melting snow threatened dramatic floods, Hippopotas are brought back to Sinnoh to end the rain. In winter, they are summoned to end severe snowstorms and to quickly melt snow (for salt in ancient Sinnoh was a rare commodity) while in summer, they paradoxically are used to reduce heat by spewing enough sand into the air to partially blot out the sun. It is a great joy for the Hippopotas whenever they are called upon, for they have never accepted their desert exile and still dream of returning to Sinnoh for good.