Thunderstorms in Minecraft: Everything you need to know

With Minecraft having such a lush and vibrant world, players have many different biomes and locations to explore. To make the world feel even more alive, there are different weather patterns that could modify a location.

One of these weather types is the Thunderstorm. Just like in real life, these storms can be quite dangerous if the player doesn't take shelter. They are composed of rain, thunder, and lightning. Here's everything players need to know about this weather pattern in Minecraft.

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Thunderstorms as a weather pattern in Minecraft

Weather patterns in Minecraft happen randomly, and thunderstorms are no exception. The game will have a counter that counts down based on the weather being "clear." This timer can last between .5 and 7.5 days unless specified differently by the player.

When the clear counter reaches 0, the rain can be toggled on via a rain counter for a random amount of time, which can last between .5 and 1 day. Furthermore, the thunder counter is also timed randomly, lasting between 3-13 minutes per cycle.

For a thunderstorm to occur, both the rain and the thunder timer need to be on at the same time. If these conditions are met, the player will receive a thunderstorm until either the thunder counter or rain counter reaches zero. At that point, they will be toggled off until the next cycle.

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What happens during a Minecraft thunderstorm?

For those unaware, the type of biome will determine the type of precipitation that falls during a thunderstorm. The warmer biomes will sport rain, while colder ones can harbor snow. However, the thunder will happen the same regardless.

When a thunderstorm happens, it will darken the sky, rendering the sun, moon, and stars no longer visible. Furthermore, there will be bright flashes of light as lightning strikes. During thunderstorms, the light projected from the sky falls to 10. However, it is counted as 0 for the purpose of mob spawning, meaning mobs can spawn anywhere during a thunderstorm,

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Lightning strikes in Minecraft

Perhaps the most dangerous part of a thunderstorm, besides spawning mobs, is lightning. During a storm, lightning will strike randomly and hit any block that is exposed to the sky. This will illuminate the world when it strikes and sets fire to blocks within two blocks of the strike.

Players and entities struck by lightning will take 2.5 hearts worth of damage. Some mobs, such as villagers, mooshrooms, and creepers can be changed during the lightning strike. They can be transformed into witches, brown or red mooshrooms, and charged creepers respectively.

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Keeping safe from the lightning

Players in Minecraft may wish to keep their builds and animals safe from lightning. Luckily, this can be done by installing a lightning rod. This is a block crafted from three copper ingots that can draw lightning within 128 blocks in Java Edition and 64 blocks in Bedrock Edition.

However, lightning diverted by this lightning rod can still cause damage and start fires. Therefore, the best method to avoid a thunderstorm is to simply use a bed and sleep it off. Once awake again, the storm will be over and players can carry on building without the threat of lightning.