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I'm in an area full of snow, does that mean it will only snow, or is there a possibility of rain?

Is an area with ice or snow guaranteed to have snow fall? If not, what decides what weather the area has? Is there a way to tell what weather you will get in an area without having to wait and see?

EDIT: So, going by the accepted answer, this shouldn't be happening? Raining on the snow Rain on snow

Clearly, it can rain on areas that were covered by snow.

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1 Answer 1

up vote 7 down vote accepted

Yes. In an area covered by snow, it will only snow. Weather is controlled by the type of biome it is affecting. It doesn't rain in Tundra, Taiga and Desert biomes.

At the moment, there are two types of weather: Rain and snow. Thunderstorms can occur in both types, and these can be dangerous: striking things with lightning (including you!), creating fires (as a result of the lighting strikes) and etctera. The occurrence of weather lasts for 15 minutes, if you don't want to go through it, you can sleep in a bed to skip that time entirely.

As a proof that different biomes have different types of weather at the same time, see the following image: (courtesy of the Minecraft Wiki)

Minecraft Weather

More information about weather: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Weather

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Can it only storm where it rains? –  Nick T Apr 29 '11 at 0:29
@Nick Thanks, I added more information. Formatting is still poor, though. Looking forward to improve my answers, if you have any suggestion, please say! –  Thiago Silveira Apr 29 '11 at 0:42
Actually, it does rain in snowy biomes. This may be a bug, but I seem to remember Notch saying in the tweet with that picture that he didn't like the abruptness. –  Ullallulloo Apr 29 '11 at 0:52

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