Talk:Thunderstorm

Questions
Things I wonder that will happen from lightning strikes: Will it power redstone dust? Will lightning be attracted to iron blocks? (the cubes made with 9 pieces of iron ingots) Are there any other effects from lightning strikes hitting other creatures IE: Will lightning hitting a zombie pigmen cause a special item to drop? Vanstrat 03:35, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I Don't Think it does any of those things but I sure hope Notch adds something like lightning rods that attract lightning. User:Skeptical Melon –The preceding undated comment was added on 15:45, 23 April 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * Lightning hitting a creeper makes it become charged and more powerful, pigs that get hit by lightning get morphed into standard zombie pigmen, deals 2.5 damage if hit by lightning. --R ocĸetor talk  21:21, 5 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Correct. Lightning has no affect on any other animals but creepers and pigs, aside from hurting them and lighting them on fire of course. – ultradude25 ( T at 05:15, 6 May 2011 (UTC)


 * If it causes sand and gravel to fall, surely it will cause other events triggered by block updates; maybe this should be mentioned but I'm not entirely certain so I shan't add it.86.146.120.232 16:02, 3 March 2012 (UTC)


 * The sand falls because the fire gives a block update; and it only happens by floating sand. Pokechu22 23:15, 18 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Just to update the topic, in recent versions lightning can also turn a villager into a witch. --MentalMouse42 (talk) 17:29, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

1.3.1 Changes
Is it just me, or are thunderstorms more common in 1.3.1? So far it has rained 3 times and 2 of them have been thunderstorms. CycloneChilli 19:08, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Fire
So you take damage from the fire, but it doesn't create real fire? Does it set you on fire? Have you seen it strike netherrack, as it's likely the rain puts out the fire? Darkid 10:13, 22 April 2011 (UTC)


 * You probably already know this, but getting directly struck by lightning deals 2.5 hearts of damage. The rain puts out all fires except netherrack fires. If lightning hits netherrack it will stay flaming. It just looks bad if there's a question with no answer :D --R ocĸetor talk  09:31, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Chances
How often do thunderstorms occur? Roughly how many times would it have to rain before there was a thunderstorm? PLEASE HELP! CycloneChilli 19:30, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Likelihood
Is there a distinguishing factor that makes lightning strike in a certain place, if so it should be added to this wiki page. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by Robeluke (Talk&#124;Contribs) 17:36, 22 April 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * There HAVE actually been reports of a lightning rod (dunno if it's a glitch or secret of Notch) in vanilla Minecraft, and they appear to be legit so far. TheroeticallyScrewed 03:52, 22 August 2011 (UTC)TheroeticallyScrewed

Conductor
Could someone kindly upload a picture for me? I want to make a point of conductors, but cannot upload images yet. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by SAraisXenoQueen (Talk&#124;Contribs) 19:30, 25 April 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * I'm not sure if thats an actual conductor since the pic was taken from such a far distance... it would be great if people tested it thoroughly then made a how-to, put up info, etc. Vanstrat 19:32, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Effects vs Trivia
How is this distinction made? It seems like a very minor difference, and feels highly judgmental. Darkid 01:03, 15 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Long story short, there isn't. If something happens when lightning strikes, move it to effects. Tinaun 01:54, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Pigmen
I'm not sure but it doesn't appear that a pigman will take damage from the lightning strike itself. 23:07, 21 May 2011 (UTC) –The preceding unsigned comment was added by Shenaniguins (Talk&#124;Contribs)  Please sign your posts with

Lightning in snowstorms?
Does lightning continue to appear when the player is fully into a snow biome and can't see nor hear rain at all? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by Verhalthur (Talk&#124;Contribs) 04:33, 7 June 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * Triangle1 : lightning storms still happen in snow biomes and desert biomes. When in snow it happens when snowing and in the desert it happens without rain or snow. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by Yearegi secure (Talk&#124;Contribs) 18:02, 14 July 2011. Please sign your posts with

Look people. Lightning DOES NOT happen in desert biomes, but you can still hear and see it if you are on the biome's edge as you can see other biomes. CycloneChilli 19:11, 7 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Is there any reason lightning shouldn't occur in a snow biome? I can assure you that lightning does not require rain. --119.242.124.233 12:02, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

It does happen in this video -- assuming it is indeed natural. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrQLl9pufxU Whatsifsowhatsit (talk) 19:37, 25 November 2013 (UTC)Whatsifsowhatsit

"Trivia: Lightning can go directly through blocks to hit the ground."
What does this phrase mean? How does Minecraft determine which blocks are the "ground" and which block are not the "ground"? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by Jecowa (Talk&#124;Contribs) 04:59, 18 July 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * I haven't studied lightning storms or anything, but lightning can be targeted through the use of mods, and it can strike the bedrock through solid ground. I doubt it uses this ability much in normal gameplay, though. Father  Toast  05:10, 18 July 2011 (UTC)


 * The ground is the ground. What it means is that Lightning aims towards the "ground" and will go through structures such as houses to get to it. 72.183.110.199 19:29, 8 December 2013 (UTC)


 * It means lightning can travel through transparent blocks until it hits an opaque block. --Wolfeye68 (talk) 11:33, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Lighting Level
This page is missing a single piece of data that is moderately important: While it is true that Thunderstorms decrease the lighting level to 7 during the day, what do they reduce it to at night? If it's the same level of light, then we should probably mention that explicitly. BobChao 16:16, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I think it is reduced, but I wondered what amount? I think it's still 4 to be honest. CycloneChilli 19:23, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I'll do the math. It has to be less then 7 because it's night, right? Has to be above 4 though. Depending on the time of night, that concludes it is either 5 or 6. 72.183.110.199 19:16, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

Valid lightning targets
I know the article states that it is possible for lightning to shoot through blocks, but the only evidence of this that I've found is when the lightning has been called by the player to a specified target using a mod. It is important for anyone who builds wooden structures to know which blocks naturally-occurring lightning will target. Does it only target the top block in one column of blocks? Does it favor taller structures? Could you lightning-proof a wooden structure by encasing it in transparent materials, such as a glass jar, or does it pass through transparent blocks? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.192.15.82 (Talk) 09:33, 20 September 2011 (UTC). Please sign your posts with


 * It is also worth noting that structures built from flammable materials in desert biomes are not safe from the fire, as there is no rain to put it out. I would assume this is the case in snowy biomes too, or will be once they are re-implemented. 74.192.15.82 09:33, 20 September 2011 (UTC)


 * In desert biomes, there is NO lightning. You may see it strike in other biomes if you're near the edge, but it will NOT strike desert biome ground. CycloneChilli 19:28, 7 August 2012 (UTC)


 * If that is true then the line: "Lightning can still touch down in dry biomes such as Deserts, with no rain to extinguish fires." needs to be removed from Effects. Cultist O 11:31, 7 October 2012 (UTC)

And should then be replaced with the pre-existing (and contradictory to the-opposite): "Lightning does not occur in desert biomes, nor does rain."? Yilante 10 /28 /2012 6:31 pm 108.228.150.192 01:32, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Name
If lightning bolt is an entity, what is its technical name? IllidanS4 16:54, 22 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Also, we need to know the entity ID for lightning. Can we make lightning spawners? :D –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 204.167.95.3 (Talk) 15:54, 18 November 2011. Please sign your posts with

O: Lightning spawners?! Actually sounds kinda interesting. I hope Notch adds an ID to Lightning so we can investigate that theory. Wait no, Jeb is in charge of Minecraft for the time being... Jeb should implement the ID. 90.191.11.233 21:50, 13 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Even if it had an ID (which it doesn't appear to, as of 1.2.5), monster spawners can only produce living entities. Could be done with a mod, though. -- Orthotope 05:29, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Indeed, Single Player Commands allows you to do that, I believe. Btw 90.191.11.233 is actually me. MaryTheTiger 22:27, 19 June 2012 (UTC)


 * What we mean is that we could use the ID to spawn an “item” version of lightning that has the same functionality of game-spawned lightning. MaryTheTiger 19:40, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

In 12w34b it is possible to spawn non living entities like XPOrb via Mob cage.

Note: for 1.8, it is LightingBolt The only problem is that the SAVEGAME-Id's of the most technical entities are nowhere to find in the internet. So if somebody know the SAVEGAME-ID's of lightning bolt or other entities like falling sand or primed tnt, please write it down here –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 100.67.165.201 (Talk) 09:42, 4 September 2012‎ (UTC). Please sign your posts with


 * All entities with IDs are now listed at Data values. Anything not listed does not have an ID number or name. -- Orthotope 00:55, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Getting hit by lightning
There is no mention of being hit by lightning. Is it technically possible? If not it should be noted somewhere. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 89.206.39.18 (Talk) 01:44, 11 November 2011 (UTC). Please sign your posts with


 * well, i got hit and lit on fire –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 99.231.4.68 (Talk) 04:32, 27 November 2011 (UTC). Please sign your posts with


 * Yes it is possible, although very rare. I was struck by lightning from a thunderstorm while playing on a Beta 1.7.3 SMP server. It dealt like 7 hearts of damage or something and I think I caught on fire. I don't remember exactly how much. - Asterick6 22:20, 27 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Nvm the ~7 hearts of damage was probably from the combined effects of the hit and the fire. It deals 3½ hearts of damage to the player. - Asterick6 22:24, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Charged Creeper???
Open the page "Thunderstorm". If you look at the animation, you will see a creeper in the forest. Why do it just keep jumping and don't get charged??? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.112.51.87 (Talk) 12:55, 6 December 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * Creepers only become charged when directly struck by lightning. --Z15274 07:31, 31 December 2011 (UTC)


 * No, the creeper wasn't within 3 blocks. --Wolfeye68 (talk) 11:35, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Nether
Possible bug: I went through a Nether portal during a thunderstorm, and the Nether's background started flickering. Has this happened to anyone else? Donatello 23:45, 5 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Never mind, the Nether page mentions this. Donatello 23:48, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

blizzards
o.k i think we should call lightning in snow biomes blizzards anyone with me? Uthink 22:20, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Blizzards are extreme snow. Lightning does not classify snow as a blizzard! CycloneChilli 19:25, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Can Lightning hit any kind of block?
Has anyone tested whether lightning can strike on any kind of block? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by Fibonatic (Talk&#124;Contribs) 14:21, 16 April 2012. Please sign your posts with

Glass
Does lightning have any effect on glass blocks? --Radical Edward2 17:09, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Good q., up there with: "does Wool really reduce Boats' breaking, or is that just a myth [in any case, we can now drop Boats as items, so it doesn't matter, much]?" I'd guess it's the same-amount as other "transparent" blocks? Yilante 10 /28 /12 6:28 pm 108.228.150.192 01:29, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Charged creepers struck twice
The page says that creepers die after being hit a second time by lightning by "overload". My creeper died after being hit by lightning four times. Does it just die from damage, then? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.132.35.214 (Talk) 14:23, 8 June 2012. Please sign your posts with


 * Other than becoming charged, creepers have no special code for being hit by lightning. Fixed. -- Orthotope 05:29, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Lightning does not affect portals
Hey. Lightning struck my active portal to the nether and nothing happened. But the portal definitely is activated when lightning strikes the frame. Is the article wrong then? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.132.35.214 (Talk) 22:15, 8 June 2012. Please sign your posts with


 * Technically, Nether portals are activated by fire inside the portal frame. More fire does not deactivate them, so yes, the article was incorrect. Fixed. -- Orthotope 05:29, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Death Message
What is the death message if you die from lightning? Make sure it's the lightning that kills you and not the fire afterwards. HotdogPi Come to my page! 17:10, 9 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Looking at the code, it's considered the same type of damage as being in a fire, so you should get the 'went up in flames' message. Haven't actually tested in-game yet. -- Orthotope 20:10, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Light levels? When did it become 7?
Unless I'm really senile, lightning in 1.2.5 was light level 10 (5 levels of sky darkening), not 7.

Is this a 1.3 change? If so, should there be a history section?

Also, a question on lighting and fire. 125 would not set something on fire (normal difficulty) during thunder, yet there is no mention of difficulty affecting fire in the article. --Keybounce 16:50, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Thunderstorm without rain
Right now I am witnessing a thunderstorm WITHOUT rain. I'm in the JungleHills biome and for 64 blocks around me there is no desert. I play with OptiFine_1.3.2_HD_UB3 mod, weather is not switched off (I'm not hearing any sound of rain, besides). This is the first and so far the only time I see such weather effect. Had anybody else observed it? --N21LV 17:33, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Probably way too late for you, but if you had recently updated at that time, while using a world from a previous version, the terrain generation system could have changed, placing your previous jungle biome into a desert biome. --98.114.242.134 19:43, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Lightning striking under overhangs
In Effects it says: "Overhangs can prevent rain from putting out lightning fires, allowing the fire to spread." and later in Trivia: "Forest fires made by lightning are rare unless the lightning strikes underneath a tree where the rain won't be able to extinguish the fire."

How far under an overhang can lightning go, or how do you know whether lightning is able to hit a particular point? Cultist O 11:38, 7 October 2012 (UTC)

Desert
There's a discrepancy with deserts. The Effects section lists lightning able to touch down in desert, while the Trivia says it can't. I assume this is due to a recent change, but can someone confirm what is correct and edit one of these entries? Direpinnacle 19:17, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Lightning strikes within Desert biomes - yes or no?
As several others have previously noted here on the talk page, there continues to be a contradiction in the article between two sections:

Under the 'Effects' section, it is stated, "Lightning can still touch down in dry biomes such as Deserts, with no rain to extinguish fires."

While, under the 'Trivia' section, the opposite is stated, "Lightning does not occur in desert biomes, nor does rain."

Can someone with knowledge on the subject please clear this issue up and make appropriate edits? Thanks!


 * I have seen several comments about this with what I feel are iffy answers. I do not believe that the two possibilities are mutually exclusive and both should potentially be left in the wiki, although it seems to have been changed since the last comments about this were made. Is it not possible for a lightning storm to occur in a biome adjacent to a desert biome and for lightning to come down from the adjacent biome that has an active thunderstorm to touch down in the desert biome that is not having a thunderstorm? This would make both statements "Lightning does not occur in desert biomes" and "Lightning can still touch down in dry biomes such as Deserts" true and therefore both be left in the wiki. This is only speculation and needs confirmation about whether or not it is actually possible for lightning to cross over the edge of the biome to land in the desert, though I cannot imagine why it can't happen.--Reitrahc (talk) 23:41, 1 January 2015 (UTC)
 * I just checked decompiled code for 1.8.2-pre1, and also tested it by modding the "chance for lightning strike" to $1/10$ (versus $1/100000$). Lightning only strikes where it is raining, so no strikes in dry or snowy biomes (including Extreme Hills above the snow line). The fire resulting from the strike might overflow into an adjacent biome, of course, but the lightning itself won't. Anomie x (talk) 13:56, 2 January 2015 (UTC)
 * User:Reitrahc's proposal would be confusing anyway, since it isn't obvious that thunderstorms have a point of origin rather than being global, nor that they can cross biome borders. Seahen (talk) 01:42, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Thunderstorm=More Loot?
I've noticed that during thunderstorms, mobs with better gear spawn. For instance, normally skeletons only show up with enchanted bows once in a blue moon- it's a regular occurence during thunderstorms. Also, zombies seem to have a better chance of spawning with armor or other stuff during a thunderstorm. I've only tested this with a Superflat world and artificially induced thunderstorms. Can someone do full testing on this? 75.189.153.145 21:44, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Power by Lightning
Could, in theory, lightning be used for a power supply? Since it can activate inactive redstone and fry active redstone, (like real world lightning will do to electrical objects), then couldn't it, par-say, be used for a redstone power supply? I will be doing some experiments to find this out. The experiments will involve large towers made of varying materials and layered in redstone wire in a grid pattern. These will be one block wide but will go all the way up to 2 blocks away from the height limit so I can put redstone on top. These will then be hooked up to a meter just like the one seen on the daylight sensor page. If I can get a signal on the ground from a lightning strike to the tower then however long the meter stays on for will determine if this is possible. The material may make a difference so I will be doing lots of experiments with different materials for the tower but all will be layered in redstone. I hope this works. Brickticks (talk) 20:03, 25 October 2013 (UTC)


 * That won't work. Blocks don't attract lightning, although players wearing a full set of iron armor have a higher chance of being struck. Lightning won't power redstone, and I tested this by changing to hard difficulty in 1.7.2 wearing a full set of iron armor. The lightning struck some redstone dust, and it did nothing.  Meeples10 t ~ c 21:30, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

I'm still going to try, it may take a while but eventually some lightning will strike, I can't control the weather and neither can you, so there is no way that you can be sure that it won't work. Besides, it might be that the redstone dust that you saw get struck was fried, not powered, so yeah. It says that the lightning can power or deactivate, (fry), redstone dust so you might have seen the dust get fried not powered, like in the real world, wires can be forcibly powered by lightning for forcibly turn off and destroyed or "fried", so that's what you might have seen. Thank you, goodbye. Brickticks (talk) 02:28, 29 October 2013 (UTC)


 * This is Minecraft, a game, in which you can go into the code and modify it, and thus able to modify/control the weather. And no, I checked other sources and the coding itself; there is no correlation with lightning and powering redstone. I'm going to delete that info right now, along with many others; there are so many speculations and false info on this page. But hey, that feature is very appealing. --Neutral0814 (talk) 05:39, 18 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I've tried (in 1.8.2-pre6) using /summon to trigger a lightning bolt on a wire, connected to a redstone lamp 2 blocks away. It didn't blink on. (I'd already used /weather thunder, so this bolt did indeed arrive during a storm.) That tells me that lightning doesn't generate spurious redstone signals (except possibly in situations where fires from other causes would do so). Seahen (talk) 02:10, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

I have a question, again.
O.K. so, didn't there used to be a command string for getting/forcing lightning to strike a certain place? I think it was something that involved a command for lightning and then some coordinates, I think. Does anybody know what that was, or am I just going crazy? Brickticks (talk) 20:07, 22 May 2014 (UTC) Oh, I just thought of something, didn't it have something to do with the spawn command, or am i just going crazier? Brickticks (talk) 20:11, 22 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Only possible with mods. Lightning doesn't have an entity ID, so it can't be created with /summon . -- Orthotopetalk 20:47, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

You can use /summon to create lightning in snapshot 14w30+. --812402 (talk) 12:43, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Definition of the lighting bolt
There seems to be some contingency on the definition of a lighting bolt, according to the code, such events are classed on the "entity" superclass which includes all regular entities, it is also created with a uuid, however lighting bolts are incapable of doing things like catching on fire, having health, or other things.

This potentially means that the definition of entities is flawed and should be tweaked, it is important to do this because currently there is much needless discussion on whether or not lighting bolts are entities. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 187.189.164.4 (talk) at 23:25, 11 December 2014 (UTC). Please sign your posts with


 * As lightning bolts are the only entity that behaves like that, I say we should treat them as an exception rather than a rule. I don't see the point in redefining the definition of an entity just because a single one does not fit the case, rather it can simply be said lightning is an entity, but does not display the standard entity behaviors. – KnightMiner  (t·c) 23:37, 11 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Some reference material relevant to the root of the discussion - here -- Bb 20 (Edits)  01:00, 12 December 2014 (UTC)


 * I agree however I am unable to understand the format of the wiki and therefore I would request someone more qualified to add the little note in the thunderstorm article. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 187.189.164.91 (talk) at 14:52, 12 December 2014 (UTC). Please sign your posts with

Boundaries
Does lightning exceed the limit that chunks only change if they are near the player? If it does, please clarify. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.165.49.48 (talk) at 0:50, 19 January 2015 (UTC). Please sign your posts with


 * Lightning can strike in any loaded chunk, as would be expected (why load a chunk to randomly start fires). – KnightMiner  (t·c) 00:57, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

Frequency?
It says 1/100000 per tick per chunk, which with the usual 81 chunks and 20 ticks would mean roughly one per minute.

This can't be right at all.

True, sometimes when I was somewhere in a swamp I get them pretty rarely, but right now I'm in a hills biome and I am getting up to 3 PER SECOND. I do have Thaumcraft installed, but I doubt Thaumcraft does that. I'm still gonna ask them about this. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.178.81.201 (talk) at 11:56, 18 December 2015 (UTC). Please sign your posts with
 * Believe it or not, the code says 1/100000 per chunk per tick. 81 chunks seems small though. Anomie x (talk) 12:46, 18 December 2015 (UTC)

Lighting
Anomie x (talk) 12:00, 21 June 2016 (UTC)
 * In your recent rewrite, you introduced claims that lighting reduces to 7 during thunderstorms and that mobs spawn as if the light level were 7, including a history entry for 1.7.2. Both of these seem to be incorrect.
 * Sky light level is determined by what MCP calls . During full daylight, the calculation is , giving a light level of 10, not 7. This appears to go back to beta 1.5 when weather was added.
 * As for rendering brightness, at gamma=0 full sky light with 0 block light gives rgb(0.46,0.46,0.61), which is between the rgb(0.43,0.43,0.43) for normal daylight level 11 and the rgb(0.63,0.63,0.63) for normal daylight level 12, again not anywhere near level 7. This goes back to at least 1.8, and considering the similarities in the code to the formula for the sky light subtraction I'd be surprised if it was different in 1.7.2.
 * The mob spawning change is in what MCP calls, which is what enforces the "hostile mobs only spawn in darkness" constraint. When thunderstorming, it temporarily overrides the sky light subtraction value to 10 which means an effective light level of 5, not 7. This goes back to beta 1.5 when weather was added.