Weather in Minecraft: Everything players need to know

Just like in real life, Minecraft has distinct weather patterns that affect the game. There are three main weather patterns in Minecraft: clear, rainy, and thunder. There are also snowy weather patterns, but these only occur in colder climates.

These weather patterns shape Minecraft's gameplay, and can be changed with weather commands in the game. Players may want to know more about the weather in Minecraft, here is everything players will need to know.

Different types of weather in Minecraft

Clear

Clear sky in Minecraft (Image via usgamer)

Clear weather is the most common weather type in Minecraft. This is characterized by sunlight and clouds rolling over the terrain overhead. Clear weather can range from many clouds to no clouds at any point. This is Minecraft's default weather pattern.

Rainy

Rainy weather in Minecraft (Image via minecraft.gamepedia)

Rainy weather occurs when the sky fills with clouds and reduces the light level to 12. Rain only occurs in biomes with temperatures between 0.15 and 0.95. The rain extinguishes all fires except for netherrack. It also allows mobs to walk around during the day without burning in the sun since the rain extinguishes their fire.

When it rains in Minecraft more fish spawn for fishing and wolves will attempt to shake themselves dry from the rain when they're not moving. Rain will also hydrate farms and fill cauldrons very slowly.

Thunder

Thunderstorm mod (Image via mcpedl)

Thunderstorms can occur in any biome. These storms lower the light level to 10 although the game will treat it as light level 5 which allows mobs to spawn and roam around.

Snowy

Spruce forest snow (Image via minecrarf-plus.blogspot.com)

Snowy weather occurs in biomes with temperatures less than 0.15 and at high altitudes such as mountains. The snow will collect on an extra layer on non-transparent blocks, effectively coating the world in a white blanket.

How does weather vary based off of biome?

Desert Biomes

Desert biome (Image via planetminecraft)

It doesn't rain in desert biomes as the temperature is too great for rain to occur.

Snowy/Taiga biomes

Snow in Minecraft (Image via minecraft.curseforge)

In Minecraft snow and rain are considered the same type of weather. The only difference is that snow occurs in lower temperature snowy and taiga biomes, and rain occurs in biomes with slightly warmer temperatures like plains and forests biomes.

Weather trivia points

Predetermined weather patterns

Raining over a castle (Image via digitalmarketingspecialists.it)

Each Minecraft seed has predetermined weather patterns. For example, if it rains on the third day of a specific Minecraft world, it will rain on the third day if another player uses the same Minecraft seed.

Lightning

Lightning appears during thunderstorms in Minecraft. Lightning can be heard from up to 160,000 blocks away, and will sound instantly regardless of how close the player is to the strike.

Lightning can only strike blocks that are exposed to rain, and is capable of setting flammable objects on fire; however, rain usually puts out the fire before it can spread to any other block.

Lightning will turn a villager into a witch if it strikes within a few blocks of the villager. There's also a slight chance of lightning spawning a skeleton horse. When players have a trident enchanted with channeling and they throw it during a thunderstorm, a lightning strike will appear at the thrown location.

Rain and snow

Rain doesn't put out campfires or torches (Image via wallhere)

Rain and snow are not considered different types of weather in Minecraft. This is why players can't use a weather command to start snow in a plains biome, or start rain in a snowy taiga biome. The weather variant is completely dependent on the biome the player is in.