/weather

The /weather command changes the weather in a Minecraft world to clear skies, rain or a thunderstorm, and can set how long it lasts. It is useful for stopping rain while you build, starting a thunderstorm to create charged creepers or skeleton horse traps, and setting the mood for adventure maps and screenshots. This command reference covers the full syntax in Java and Bedrock, durations, how each weather type affects gameplay, the weather cycle game rule and common errors.

Syntax

Edition	Syntax
Java	/weather <clear|rain|thunder> [duration]
Bedrock	/weather <clear|rain|thunder> [duration]
Bedrock query	/weather query

• clear: sunny skies, no rain or snow.
• rain: rain in most biomes, snow in cold biomes, and nothing in dry biomes such as deserts and savannas.
• thunder: a thunderstorm with heavy rain, darker skies and lightning.
• duration (optional): how long the weather lasts. In Java you can use units: d for days, s for seconds and t for ticks, for example /weather rain 600s for ten minutes. Without units, Java treats the number as ticks in recent versions; older versions used seconds. Bedrock uses ticks.

If you leave out the duration, the game picks a random length, after which the normal weather cycle continues.

Examples

Command	Result
/weather clear	Stops rain and storms
/weather rain	Starts rain for a random time
/weather thunder	Starts a thunderstorm
/weather clear 1d	Java: clear skies for one in-game day
/weather thunder 6000	Thunderstorm for 6,000 ticks (5 minutes)
/weather query	Bedrock: shows the current weather

How weather affects gameplay

Rain

• Fills cauldrons slowly and puts out fire on players, mobs and blocks.
• Endermen take damage and teleport around to find shelter.
• Fishing is faster: bites come more often in the rain.
• Tridents with Riptide work when you are standing in rain, letting you launch yourself through the air.
• Snow builds up layers in cold biomes and fills cauldrons with powder snow there.
• Rain does not cause zombies or skeletons to stop burning on its own unless the sky is dark enough; heavy storms are dark enough to keep undead safe.

Thunderstorms

• The sky darkens enough for hostile mobs to spawn on the surface during the day.
• You can sleep in a bed during a thunderstorm to skip it, even in the daytime.
• Lightning strikes can start fires, turn creepers into charged creepers, villagers into witches, pigs into zombified piglins and mooshrooms between red and brown.
• Skeleton horse traps can spawn, giving four skeleton horsemen and their horses.
• Tridents with Channeling summon lightning on the mob they hit.
• Lightning striking oxidized copper removes oxidation; lightning rods attract strikes.

Clear weather

The default state. Clear skies give the best light for building and exploring and the safest days for travel. Sleeping in a bed at night also clears any rain.

The natural weather cycle

Without commands, weather changes on its own: clear skies usually last between half a day and several days, followed by rain that may become a thunderstorm. Thunderstorms are rarer than rain. You can stop the cycle entirely with a game rule:

• Java: /gamerule doWeatherCycle false
• Bedrock: /gamerule doweathercycle false, or turn off Weather Cycle in world settings

Set your preferred weather first, then disable the cycle to keep it. This is common on creative servers that never want rain, or on spooky maps that want permanent storms. See the /gamerule reference.

Using thunderstorms on purpose

Some of the best items in Minecraft depend on lightning. Players set /weather thunder to farm charged creepers for mob heads using a Channeling trident, to get skeleton horses, or to convert mooshrooms and turn villagers into witches for a witch farm test. If you play without cheats, you have to wait for natural thunderstorms, which can take several real hours. See the creeper page for charged creepers.

Permissions

/weather requires cheats in single player or operator permission on servers. In Bedrock, using cheats disables achievements in that world. On Realms, the owner or operators can use it.

Common errors

• Weather changes back quickly: you set a short duration, or doWeatherCycle is still on.
• No rain in a desert: dry biomes never show rain, even during storms.
• Duration seems wrong: check whether your version reads plain numbers as ticks or seconds, and add a unit in Java to be sure.
• Unknown command: cheats are off.

Related commands

• /time: change the time of day.
• /gamerule: lock the weather.
• /summon: summon lightning_bolt directly at a location.

/weather FAQ

How do you stop rain in Minecraft?

Type /weather clear, or sleep in a bed.

How do you make it thunder?

Type /weather thunder with cheats enabled.

How do you keep the weather clear forever?

/weather clear, then /gamerule doWeatherCycle false.

Can you summon lightning without a storm?

Yes, with /summon lightning_bolt.

Weather in different biomes

Weather depends on the biome you stand in. Most temperate biomes such as plains, forests and oceans get rain. Cold biomes such as snowy plains, snowy taiga, ice spikes and high mountain peaks get snow instead, which builds up thin snow layers on the ground and freezes water into ice over time. Hot, dry biomes such as deserts, savannas and badlands never get rain or snow, though the sky still darkens during storms. This means the same /weather rain command can look completely different depending on where each player is standing. Mountains can show both: rain at the bottom and snow near the peaks, because temperature drops with height.

Weather and farms

Rain does not water crops, because farmland is kept moist by nearby water blocks, but it does affect several farms. Fish farms become more productive, and rain refills cauldrons used in some setups. Thunderstorms darken the sky enough for mob farms on the surface to keep running in the daytime. Lightning can burn wooden farms, so place lightning rods on tall wooden structures. Snow golems melt in hot biomes and in rain in some biomes, so keep them under a roof.

Weather for builds and screenshots

Builders often clear the weather before taking screenshots, because rain hides details and dims colors. For dramatic shots, a thunderstorm at dusk with lightning flashes makes castles and ruins look atmospheric. With shaders in Java, rain adds reflections and wet surfaces that many players love. Use /weather together with /time to stage the exact scene you want, then freeze both with game rules while you work.

How long does rain last naturally?

Natural rain usually lasts between about half an in-game day and a full day, and clear periods are typically longer. Thunderstorms are less common and tend to be shorter. Because the timing is random, players waiting for a thunderstorm to make charged creepers can wait a long time without commands, which is why /weather thunder is one of the most used commands on technical worlds. When you set weather with a duration, the natural cycle resumes as soon as that duration runs out.

Remember that weather is shared across the whole Overworld: when it rains for one player, it rains for everyone, though each player sees it according to their own biome.

If you just want to stop rain for a building session, /weather clear without a duration is usually enough; the next rain may be an in-game day or more away.

Weather also changes sound: rain and thunder have their own ambient audio, which some players turn down in sound settings.