Weather

Weather effects are global conditions within Minecraft that minorly affect gameplay.

## Behavior

The type of weather that occurs depends on several variable factors, including the temperature of the current biome, and the altitude in which it occurs.

In older versions of Minecraft, the initial occurrence of inclement weather is predetermined per seed. For example, if the first storm occurs during the second day in one world, and another world is created with the same seed, a storm also occurs during the second day. The average storm lasts 0.5 – 1 day, and there is a 0.5–7.5 day delay between storms. Storms can be skipped entirely with the use of a bed.

Players who have cheats enabled can change the current weather if they wish, by entering one of the following commands: `/weather rain [<duration>]` or `/weather thunder [<duration>]`, and `/weather clear [<duration>]` to clear the inclement weather. The `<*time*>` parameter is the duration of the weather in seconds. `/toggledownfall`‌ also switches to inclement weather, or vice versa.

Weather changing can be toggled on or off using the `/gamerule doWeatherCycle true|false` command. When `doWeatherCycle` is set to `false`, the weather does not change indefinitely, unless altered using the `/weather` command.

## Effects

Inclement weather reduces the sky light level, depending on the severity of the storm. Because of this, villagers return to their homes until the storm passes.

The sky itself darkens, to the point where celestial bodies (including the sun, moon, and stars) are no longer visible. The clouds darken depending on the severity of the weather; note that the clouds themselves do not precipitate. Although the sun is not visible during rain, the glow associated with sunrise and sunset is still visible.

### Overcast

Overcast occurs only in biomes with a temperature of 0.15–0.95. overcast conditions reduce the light level to 12 in full daylight.

Overcast skies produce similar effects to rain, but without the obvious rain effects. The sky will darken, and the Sun, Moon, and Stars will become obscured. This type of weather is much more common in colder biomes, especially Snowy ones. Overcast often leads into Rain/Snow, but other times will simply dissipate with time.

### Rain

Rain occurs only in biomes with a temperature of 0.15–0.95. Rainstorms reduce the light level to 12 in full daylight.

Rain extinguishes fires (including flaming arrows). However, it does not extinguish fires on netherrack, and it does not solidify lava. Mobs that are on fire are extinguished on contact with rain; this prevents skeletons and zombies from burning during the day. On the contrary, endermen and snow golems may die due to their weakness to water. Endermen teleport randomly until they find a dry place. Many Fire type enemies will take damage in the Rain.

Other interesting effects caused by rain:

* Fish are more abundant during rain.
* Wolves shake themselves dry if they are not moving.
* Farmland becomes hydrated if it isn't already.
* Rain fills up cauldrons with water, albeit slowly.
* Water spells receive a 15% boost to damage.

Rain particles make noise when they hit a block, and this noise can be heard at any point within 16 blocks. These particles (along with the associated sound) can be disabled by setting Particles to "Minimal" in the Video Settings menu.‌

### Snow

Snowfall occurs only in biomes with a temperature less than 0.15, or above a sufficient altitude. Like rainstorms, snowstorms reduce the light level to 12 in full daylight.

As it snows, snow layers regenerate over all blocks. These snow layers accumulate and grow over time.

Note that any entities on fire are not extinguished upon contact with snow.

Ice spells receive a 15% boost to damage in snowy weather.

### Blizzard

Blizzards occur in biomes with a temperature less than 0.15, or above a sufficient altitude. Blizzards not only reduce the light level to 12, but also reduce draw distance, in an effect similar to Fog.

Ice spells receive a 15% boost to damage during Blizzards.

Certain enemies only spawn during Blizzards.

### Aurora Borealis

Aurora Borealis can occur in biomes with a temperature less than 0.15, or above a sufficient altitude. It is purely a cosmetic weather effect, and cannot occur unless the sky is clear. Aurora Borealis can last anywhere between 20 seconds and 2 minutes.

Certain enemies only spawn during Aurora Borealis.

### Thunderstorm

Thunderstorms may occur in any biome. They darken the land even further than the above storms, reducing the light level to 10; however, the light level from the sky is treated as if it were 5, allowing hostile mobs to spawn at any time of the day.

### Lightning

Lightning occurs frequently during thunderstorms. It strikes randomly, setting fires where it strikes, igniting any nearby flammable materials, but the rain usually puts the fire out before it can spread. Note that lightning can strike only blocks that are exposed to the rain.

Lightning deals 5 damage to entities on normal difficulty, not including the damage done by the fire it causes. It turns creepers into charged creepers, villagers into witches, pigs into zombified piglins, and mooshrooms into their brown variants.

Lightning may randomly spawn a "skeleton trap" skeletal horse, with a chance of 3.75–7.5% on Easy, 7.5–20% on Normal, and 11.25–33.75% on Hard, depending on the regional difficulty.

Thunder is a sound that occurs every time lightning strikes. It can be heard by the player up to 160,000 blocks away from the position of the lightning strike. Thunder is heard instantly, regardless the player's distance from the lightning strike itself.

Lightning may be manually summoned with the `/summon lightning_bolt` command. While it is summoned as an entity, it cannot be referred to by commands or selectors.

If the player throws a trident enchanted with channeling during a thunderstorm, it summons a lightning bolt at the thrown area.

Players wearing metal armor or wielding metal weapons or objects will attract lightning to strike closer to them, potentially putting themselves in harm's way.

### Fog

Fog is a weather effect that can occur in biomes with a temperature of 0.15–0.95. It does not lower the light level, but frequently accompanies Overcast weather.

Fog is most common to occur in "wet" biomes, such as all varieties of Swamps and Jungles. It lowers the effective draw distance to a 5 block radius around the player.

Fog occurs regularly in Beach biomes, twice a day. Just after dusk, and as the sun rises at dawn. The duration of foggy conditions after dusk may last anywhere between 2 minutes and the length of the night.

Certain monsters only spawn during Foggy weather.

### Sandstorm

Sandstorms only occur in Deserts and Badlands biomes. It produces a similar effect to Fog, lowering draw distance to a similar degree.

Certain monsters only spawn during Sandstorms.

Earth spells gain a 15% boost to accuracy during Sandstorms.