Weather



Weather in Minecraft consists of precipitation and storms that are temporary but global. Different weather occurs depending on the biome in which it occurs: snow falls in cold biomes, rain falls on others, but no precipitation occurs in deserts and savannas. Regardless, in all biomes, weather darkens the sky, hiding the sun, stars, and moon. Players who sleep in a bed during weather will wake when it ends. Rain and snow can simultaneously be seen where a snowy biome borders a non-snowy one.

Players who have cheats enabled can change the current weather if they wish, by entering the commands:, , or  Note that is the number of seconds that the weather will take place.

Rain

 * Occurs in all biomes except dry and cold biomes (such as deserts and ice plains, respectively).
 * During rain, thunderstorms become possible.
 * Decreases the light level by 3, to light level 12 in full daylight.
 * The water from rain showers cause crops to grow at a faster rate
 * It also extinguishes fires (except burning netherrack)
 * It will not cool lava into cobblestone or obsidian.
 * It will soak wolves, causing them to shake water off when reaching a dry space.
 * Rain showers and thunderstorms will harm any endermen who are exposed to the sky.
 * This does not apply to snowfall or weather conditions in dry biomes.
 * The player can hear rain that hits nearby objects, if all particles are enabled.
 * Exposed cauldrons may fill up with water.



Snow

 * Occurs only in snow-related (ice plains, cold taiga, et al.) biomes.
 * Snowfall covers the top surface of all blocks exposed to the sky with snow
 * Snow does not cover transparent blocks
 * Causes water that does not have a block above it to become ice



Thunderstorm

 * Thunderstorms are much darker than normal rain, at light level 7 or less.
 * This is dark enough to spawn hostile mobs.
 * Villagers will return to their homes until the storm passes.
 * Thunder frequently rumbles in the background.
 * This sound can be heard from bedrock all the way to the building height limit and beyond.
 * Lightning occurs frequently during thunderstorms, but very rarely does it strike the player.
 * It deals to entities on normal difficulty, not including the damage done by the fire it causes.
 * It creates fire where it strikes, but the rain usually puts the fire out before it can spread.
 * In a dry biome, however, any fire caused by lightning will spread, since there is no rain to put it out.
 * If Lightning strikes a pig, it morphs into a zombie pigman.
 * If lightning strikes a creeper, it becomes a charged creeper and has a much more powerful explosion.
 * Villagers struck by lightning will turn into witches.

Trivia

 * A thunderstorm is needed for lightning to naturally occur, though the player may summon lightning manually by using the command.
 * Tamed wolves will run away to shelter during a thunderstorm.
 * Rain and snow will still fall even if you are above the cloud layer. The rain therefore, as can happen in real life, originates in the unreachable upper cloud level.
 * Rain and snow are both considered the same weather effect by the game.
 * This explains why there is no command.
 * If weather occurs in the Nether and the Void is visible, the Void will constantly flash brightly and no rain, snow, or lightning will be present.
 * Weather seems to have a predetermined pattern for every seed. For example, if a thunderstorm happens the second day, if you use the same seed again, it will also happen the second day in that world too.
 * The sound that rain makes is generated by the particles of rain reaching the ground, rather than the event. As a result of this, one can make the aforementioned sound stop playing by turning the particles setting to minimal.