Rain

Rain in forest

Rain is a type of weather that occurs occasionally in Minecraft.

Behavior

Rain is a semi-common temporary, global occurrence that can happen randomly at any time within the Overworld. In colder biomes, and at certain altitudes, it snows instead. No rain occurs in warmer biomes such as deserts and savannas, as well as in other dimensions.

The average rainfall lasts 0.5–1 Minecraft day, and there is a 0.5–7.5 day delay between rains. Rain has a small chance to worsen into a thunderstorm.

Rainy weather always clears at sunrise after sleeping in a bed. Otherwise, it stops after a random duration of time.

In Bedrock Edition, rain can fall tilted, and snow particles can fall twisting, bending, and moving around. In Java Edition rain and snow fall straight down.

Effects

A heavy rain obscuring the distance

Rain in a desert bordering a lake

The sun is not visible during rain although the sunrise afterglow is visible.

Rainfalls darken the world, causing the light from the sun to decrease by 3, bringing it to light level 12 in full daylight. Moonlight, however, is not reduced, and remains at light level 4. The sky itself darkens, even in biomes where it does not rain, and in Java Edition, celestial bodies (the sun, moon, and stars) are no longer visible. In Bedrock Edition, the sun and moon are still visible in biomes with no rain. While flying, rain also decreases visibility on land. Clouds darken from white to light gray, although clouds themselves do not precipitate. Although the sun is not visible during rain, the glow associated with sunrise and sunset is still visible.

Rain extinguishes fires (including flaming arrows), although it does not extinguish lit campfires or fires on netherrack or magma blocks. Rain does not solidify lava, and does not empty lava cauldrons. Mobs on fire are quenched on contact with rain, preventing skeletons, strays, zombies, zombie villagers, drowned, and phantoms from burning during the day. During rain, drowned can leave bodies of water when chasing a target, as if it were night time. Endermen and snow golems may die due to their weakness to water; they take damage at a rate of 1HP per half second. Endermen teleport randomly until they find a dry place. Blazes and striders that are in the Overworld also take damage on contact with rain.

At a certain biome-dependent elevation, the rain becomes snowfall, resulting in huge natural mountains having snow on the peaks while it is raining on the ground. Each biome has a certain temperature, and temperatures below 0.15 turn rain into snow. The temperature drops by 0.0016 per meter above sea level, so at high elevations, it can be cold enough to snow despite there normally being rain instead.

Other effects caused by rain:

• While fishing, there is a shorter wait time on average to get a bite during rain.
• Wolves shake themselves dry if they are not moving (certain versions only).
• Farmland becomes hydrated if it is not already.
• Rain fills up cauldrons with water, albeit slowly.
• Tridents enchanted with Riptide can be used on land.
• Tridents enchanted with Channeling call down lightning when thrown at a lightning rod.
• Tridents with the Impaling enchantment deal more damage to entities in rain.‌
• Villagers enter houses and stop their daily schedule.‌
• Bees that are outside return to their hives.
• Players are granted the Conduit Power status effect when within a conduit's range without having to be in the same body of water.
• Axolotls and dolphins can survive outside of water.

Rain particles

Rain particles make noise when they hit a block, and this noise can be heard at any point within 16 blocks. These particles (along with the associated sound) can be disabled by setting particles to "Minimal" in the video settings menu.‌ Although rain particles are visible just in the immediate vicinity, their effects occur within all loaded areas. Raindrops fall only in the two middle lines of a block, thus do not visibly fall directly onto the player. At y = -64 and below, rain does not generate particles and the associated sound event.

Sounds

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Rain falls	Weather	When rain is falling on a block	weather.rain	subtitles.weather.rain​	0.2	1.0	16
	​Rain falls	Weather	When rain is falling on a block less than two blocks above the player's eye level, and rain is not falling on the player	weather.rain.above	subtitles.weather.rain​	0.1	0.5	16

Bedrock Edition

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Weather	When rain is falling on a block	ambient.weather.rain	0.02	1.0
	Weather	When rain is falling on a block less than two blocks above the player's eye level, and rain is not falling on the player	ambient.weather.rain	0.02	?

History

[hide]Java Edition Classic
October 22, 2009							Rain is showcased.
October 22, 2009							Rain is shown to be made thinner.
0.26 SURVIVAL TEST							Rain is introduced purely for cosmetic purposes. The mechanics are simple, only testing if there is a block above to shelter the rain. It can now be toggled on and off with the F5 key.
[hide]Java Edition Indev
20100218							F5 no longer toggles rain.
[hide]Java Edition Infdev
20100413							F5 once again toggles rain. As it also toggles third person by this point, rain is visible only while in third person.
							The rain effects are broken, as only the splash particles appear, and they are always located at sea level.
[hide]Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.4							Rain splash particles once again appear on top of the highest block, instead of always at sea level.
v1.0.5							F5 no longer toggles rain.
[hide]Java Edition Beta
1.5			April 08, 2011				Rain and falling snow are implemented after a teaser video was released.
							Rain now has sounds.
[hide]Java Edition
1.3.1			12w22a				Rain now fills cauldrons with water.
1.7.2			13w36a				Rain now becomes snow in some biomes above certain altitudes.
1.9			16w04a				Rain sounds are updated (previously ). They now sound more ambient/quieter and 'realistic'.
1.18			21w44a				Sleeping now only resets the weather cycle during rain or a thunderstorm. Therefore, sleeping frequently no longer prevents rain or a thunderstorm from happening.
[hide]Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.12.1			build 1				Added rain.
			build 9				Rain is now visible from underwater.
							Rain now should cause less lag.
[hide]Pocket Edition
1.0.0			alpha 1.0.0.0				Rain can now be skipped by sleeping.
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added rain.
TU5							Improved the rain edges when looking up in rain.
TU14		1.04					Rain now fills cauldrons with water.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		Rain sounds are updated (previously ). They now sound more ambient/quieter and 'realistic'.

Issues

Issues relating to "Rain" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

Rain falling into the void

• Rain falls one block into the void (layer -64). This can be seen in creative mode by floating in the void. No particles are emitted from the rain, due to the absence of a block below it.
• Rain still falls above the clouds. Notch explains that the gray above the clouds during a storm is another layer of clouds and the origin of the rain.
• Raindrop splash particles can be seen on top of blocks of layer 255 at most, even in biomes where it cannot rain.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 

  Rain in Java Edition Classic

• 

  An early bug showed rain particles underwater. This was fixed in Alpha v1.0.4.