The /weather Command: How to Turn Off Rain Forever or Start an Endless Thunderstorm

The /weather command only works in worlds with cheats enabled. If a world was created without them, in Java Edition, go to the menu (Esc) -> "Open to LAN" -> "Allow Cheats: ON". In Bedrock Edition (phone, console, Windows 10), the "Cheats" toggle is located in the game settings under the "Game" section.

There are two ways to remove precipitation in Minecraft.

To stop rain or snow immediately, enter the following command in the console: /weather clear

To keep the sun shining constantly and prevent rain from ever starting on its own, use the game rule: /gamerule doWeatherCycle false. After entering this command, the current weather will "freeze." If it was raining at that moment, you must clear it once with /weather clear. The weather cycle will remain stopped until the rule is set back to true.

Additional parameters are used to change the type of precipitation.

• Rain: /weather rain. In cold biomes (taiga, mountains), snow will fall instead of rain.
• Thunderstorm: /weather thunder. The sky will turn very dark, lightning will appear, and hostile mobs will begin to spawn even during the day.

Experienced players use the storm mode for several purposes:

1. Charging Creepers. If lightning strikes a normal creeper, it becomes charged. The explosion of such a mob allows you to obtain heads from zombies, skeletons, and other creepers.
2. Using the Trident. The "Channeling" enchantment summons lightning upon hitting a target with a trident only during a thunderstorm.
3. Flying with Elytra. With the "Riptide" enchantment, you can launch yourself into the sky without rockets as long as it is raining or storming.

Often, the command doesn't work as expected because of the difference in time units between game versions.

Here, the time after the command is specified in seconds. Example: /weather rain 300 will turn on rain for exactly 5 minutes.

In this version, time is measured in ticks (1 second = 20 ticks). Example: /weather rain 6000 will turn on rain for 5 minutes (300 seconds x 20 ticks). If you enter a small number like "300" on Bedrock, the game will start the rain for only 15 seconds, and it will stop almost immediately.

Sometimes the command works, but there are no visual changes. This depends on where the player is located:

• Desert, Savanna, and Badlands (Mesa): It never rains here. The sky will simply turn gray and the light level will drop, but no droplets will appear.
• Cold Biomes (Ice Plains, Frozen River): Snow will always fall instead of rain.