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, but no precipitation occurs in deserts and savannas. Weather darkens the sky, hiding the sun, stars, and moon. Players who sleep in a bed during weather will wake when it ends.

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.
 * During rain, thunderstorms are possible.
 * Decreases the light level by 3 in full daylight.
 * The water from rain showers may hydrate farmland causing 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, but it 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.
 * Mobs on fire are put out on contact with rain; this prevents skeletons and zombies from burning in daylight.
 * In pocket edition monsters may spawn while it's raining because of how dark it is when it rains.



Snow

 * Occurs only in biomes that generate with snow or ice.
 * Snowfall covers the top surface of all blocks exposed to the sky with snow, but it does not cover transparent blocks
 * Causes water that does not have a block above it to become ice



Overcast
In dry biomes in the Overworld, rain and snow do not fall, but the sky turns gray.

Thunderstorm

 * Occurs only during rain and in the same biomes as rain.
 * Thunderstorms reduce the light level to 10 and allow hostile mobs to spawn as though it was no more than 5.
 * 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 can only strike blocks that are exposed to the rain.
 * It deals damage 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.
 * It turns creepers into charged creepers, villagers into witches and pigs into zombie pigmen.

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.
 * The initial occurrence of rainfall is predetermined per seed. For example, if the first rainfall happens the second day in a new world, and another new world is created with the same seed, it will also happen the second day. After the first rainfall, the rain time is random.
 * 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.