Weather

Weather not only looks pretty, it also does stuff.

Weather is a mechanic that causes numerous environmental effects, like rain, thunder, and even hail.

Climate

Weather is location based. Climates that are more like jungles will have more frequent rain, while those resembling deserts will have less rainfall. Differences in climates can be viewed using the player's map . In general, areas appearing more green are areas of higher rainfall, while areas appearing more brown are drier. And of course, white areas indicate snowy regions.

Technical

Climatic areas are defined with a few properties, the ones weather patterns are effected by are temperature and rainfall. A weather pattern can specify a weight function that handles checking where a pattern can form. Either AvoidHotAndDry or TestRainTemp may be chosen, TestRainTemp requires the pattern to specify ranges for rain and temp. Without a weight function a pattern may occur in any climate. Patterns also have a weight property that generally specifies the probability a pattern will occur.

Weather Patterns

There are nine basic weather patterns in the game and several more variants. Each one has associated cloud shapes and precipitation. However, there are still only four different attributes for a weather pattern, clouds, fog, precipitation, and lightning.
The weather can be influenced by server commands, for more info check the List of server commands .

Events

There are a number of specific, weather related events that can randomly occur or be toggled by the following server commands:

• /weather setev [event] - Sets a given weather event globally.
• /weather setevr [event] - Set a given weather event only in the player's region.
  

Known weather events are:

• noevent
• lightthunder
• heavythunder
• smallhail
• largehail

Clouds & Fog

There a number of different of cloud formations and mist appearances that can appear in-game. They are all relatively faithful to the real life formations they are based on. These patterns can be changed with the following commands:

• /weather setir [pattern] - Instantly sets the weather to a pattern, only in the player's region.
• /weather setirandom - Instantly sets the weather to a random weather pattern.
  

These weather patterns include both cloud and fog occurrence. Known patterns are:

• stratusc - Light long flat streaks of clouds
• stratusl - Light long flat streaks of clouds and foggy
• overcast - 100% clouds
• overcastundulating - Overcast with undulating clouds everywhere
• stronghaze - Rare Strong haze
• mediumhaze - Medium haze everywhere
• cumulus - Cumulus clouds and clear sky
• scumulus - Small cumulus clouds and clear sky
• cumulonimbus - Cumulonimbus clouds, Towering clouds
• cumulonimbusr - Cumulonimbus clouds with rain
• cumulonimbusrf - Cumulonimbus clouds with rain and ceiling fog
• clearsky - Clear sky with some clouds
• cirrocumulus - Many small clouds
• cirrocumulusm - Cirrocumulus clouds with mist
• altocumulus - Many medium sized clouds

Precipitation

Weather patterns can cause rain, snow, or hail. For some patterns, the precipitation is controlled by the climate, so a cold location will snow while a warm location will rain. Other patterns will always have one form of precipitation.

Rain and snow irrigates farmland, allowing crops to grow. It also extinguishes firepits , torches , and forges exposed to the sky. Any block extinguished by rain can be relit using a torch. Hot work items on anvils are also cooled down.

Hail deals damage to players who do not take shelter.

The average precipitation level in the spot the player is currently in can be checked by pressing C - the average rainfall in the area will be displayed below the outside temperature, in the environment window. It will be displayed in words, these can be translated to numbers for comparison:

• Very Rare: 0 - 0.15 rainfall
• Rarely: 0.15 - 0.30 rainfall
• Uncommon: 0.30 - 0.45 rainfall
• Common: 0.45 - 0.70 rainfall
• Very Common: 0.70 - 0.90 rainfall
• Almost all the time: 0.90+ rainfall

Wind

There are different wind strengths and patterns in the game. Wind is mostly relevant for mechanical power , because windmills need strong wind to function. The wind pattern can be changed using the following command:

• /weather setw [pattern] - Sets the current wind pattern to the given wind pattern.
  
  

There is a number of different known wind patterns in the game:

• still - No wind
• lightbreeze - A light breeze
• mediumbreeze - A medium breeze
• strongbreeze - A strong breeze
• storm - Heavy thunderstorm like winds