Snowfall

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

Behavior

Snowfall is a temporary, biome-specific occurrence that can happen randomly at any time in snowy biomes. In stony shore^[1] and windswept hills biomes, snowfall occurs only above layer 120. In taiga and old growth spruce taiga, snowfall occurs only above layer 160. Snowfall occurs above layer 200 in old growth pine taiga. Snowfall also occurs in frozen ocean biomes, where it occurs in certain locations, while it rains in others, as a result of a temperature gradient within the biome. In lush biomes, snowfall can occur only at layers above the block height limit. Snowfall does not exist in hot/dry biomes and in other dimensions.

Below are the altitudes at which rain ends and snow begins, depending on the biome. The exact height of the snow line is randomized: take taiga for example, the lowest possible snow layer forms at y level 153, and the minimum height where snow forms at all locations is y level 168, with snow lines ranging between y levels 153 and 168 across different locations.

The average snowfall lasts 0.5–1 Minecraft day, and there is a 0.5–7.5 day delay between snowstorms. Snowstorms have a small chance to worsen into thunderstorms.

Thunderstorms can be skipped entirely by sleeping in a bed.

Effects

Snowstorms 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 snow, and in Java Edition, celestial bodies (the sun, moon, and stars) are no longer visible.^[3] In Bedrock Edition, the sun and moon are still visible in biomes with no snow. The clouds darken from white to a light gray, but they do not precipitate. While the sun is not visible during snowfall, the glow associated with sunrise and sunset is still visible.

In Bedrock Edition, all leaves that are exposed to the sky in snowy biomes, with the exception of cherry and azalea, slowly change from green to white once snowfall begins and for its duration, giving them a frosted appearance. Leaves placed after this transition has occurred for a particular snowfall cycle appear frosted as soon as they are placed. Leave particles also turn white during snowfall, with the same colors as leaves.

As it snows, snow layers regenerate over all blocks with a solid top surface at integer y-values.^[4] In Bedrock Edition, these snow layers naturally accumulate over time, with each biome having its own set of values determining how much or how little snow can be accumulated through snowfall. Once snow accumulates to the maximum height allowed in a specific biome, it reverts itself back to the biome's minimum and starts over. In Java Edition, snowfall creates one layer of snow by default, and the number of layers that can accumulate can be altered by the game rule snowAccumulationHeight: setting it to 0 makes no snow form at all, and setting it to 8 or above lets snow form up to the level of a full block. Snow can also generate snowlogged in certain types of vegetation in Bedrock Edition.

Snow particles

Falling snowflake particle effects are visible through the air over all cold regions during snowfall. Unlike with rain, any entities that are on fire are not extinguished on contact with snow. In Java Edition, snowflakes fall in the two middle lines of a block; they do not visibly fall directly onto the player. In Bedrock Edition, snow particles can fall twisting, bending, and moving around, independent of a block.

On the border of a snowy biome and rainy biome, snowfall gradually transforms into rainfall up to eight blocks from the border in Bedrock Edition. This also happens when the biomes border each other in vertical direction, and has no influence on snow generation or melt. In Java Edition, no transition between biomes exists at all and the border between snowfall and rainfall is visible on the edge of single blocks.

List of blocks that let snow go through

Powder snow

During snowfall, cauldrons under the sky slowly fill with powder snow.

Video

History

Issues

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

Trivia

• In Bedrock Edition, snow falls one block into the void (Y=-65). This can be seen in creative mode by floating in the void.
• Snow still falls above the clouds. Notch's explanation is that the gray above the clouds during a storm is another layer of clouds and the origin of the snow.^[5]
• At extremely high Y values, snow appears to fall more slowly and the texture of the snow particles becomes vertically stretched. The slowed falling speed becomes noticeable at around Y=200000, while the vertical stretching effect becomes noticeable around Y=1000000

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  A snow mod in Minecraft Classic.
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  Snowfall in Minecraft Alpha.
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  A timelapse of leaves becoming frosted at the start of snowfall in Bedrock Edition.
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  Comparison of snowfall in Java and Bedrock editions.
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  The boundary between rain and snow in Java Edition.
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  The transition between snowfall and rainfall in Bedrock Edition.
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  Trees at the boundary of a snowy taiga and windswept hills biome in Bedrock Edition, showing both types of leaves.
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  Snow falling on a snowy taiga hills village in Bedrock Edition.
• 
  Snowfall in snowy mountains.

References

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