How to Make It Day and Stop the Rain in Minecraft (/time and /weather)

Who can use them

/time and /weather are operator commands (level 2). In a singleplayer world you need cheats on; on a server you need to be op: type op YourName in the server console (everything about levels in how to op a player). If you aren't, the game answers “Unknown or incomplete command”.

In the in-game chat they go with a slash (/time set day); in the server console, without it (time set day). This guide is for Minecraft Java; on Bedrock /time set and /weather clear are written the same, but the rules aren't (the difference is at the end).

Make it day, night or noon

With /time set and a word or a number of ticks. A full day is 24 000 ticks (20 real minutes) and 0 is dawn, 6:00 in-game:

1. Morning

   /time set day: sets tick 1000, 7:00. This is the one for making it day.

2. Noon

   /time set noon: tick 6000, the sun at its highest.

3. Night

   /time set night: tick 13000, 19:00, when it starts getting dark and monsters come out.

4. Midnight

   /time set midnight: tick 18000, the moon at its highest.

An exact time: the number

Any time works with its number: /time set 0 is dawn and /time set 12000, sunset. Every 1000 ticks is one in-game hour. To skip the maths, the Minecraft time calculator gives you the number for each hour and the command ready to copy.

/time add adds instead of setting: /time add 12000 moves on half a day. The difference is that /time set can turn the clock back and /time add never does, so the world's day counter (the one the 100-day challenges use) keeps counting properly with /time add.

Keep it day forever

Set the time you want and then stop the clock with the advance_time game rule:

1. The time

   /time set day (or noon if you want the sun at its highest).

2. Stop the clock

   /gamerule advance_time false. The sun stays where it is until you set it back to true.

doDaylightCycle no longer exists

Before 1.21.11 the rule was called doDaylightCycle: on a current version /gamerule doDaylightCycle false comes up red and does nothing. It's what confuses people most, because almost every answer you find is older than that. All the ones that were renamed are in the gamerules guide.

Since 26.1 there's another way to stop the day: /time pause stops the world's clock and /time resume starts it again.

Stop the rain

/weather clear clears the sky at once. The other two are /weather rain (rain, or snow in cold places) and /weather thunder (a storm: monsters spawn in daytime too).

If you don't say how long, the game picks a random stretch and changes again when it's due. To decide yourself, add the duration with its letter: /weather clear 1d keeps the sky clear for a whole in-game day and /weather thunder 600s gives you ten minutes of storm (s is seconds, d in-game days and t ticks). With the letter there's no doubt about the unit.

Never let it rain

Same idea as the day: clear the sky and stop the weather with the advance_weather rule (before 1.21.11 it was doWeatherCycle). For a building world or a lobby people usually set both together, gamerule advance_time false and gamerule advance_weather false, with the time and sky you want set first.

1. Clear it

   /weather clear.

2. Stop it

   /gamerule advance_weather false. It won't rain or thunder again until you set it back to true.

Skip the night with one player asleep

On a server the night is only skipped if everyone online is asleep, and there's always someone down a mine. The players_sleeping_percentage rule says what share has to be in bed: /gamerule players_sleeping_percentage 1 means one player is enough, and with 50 half of them is enough (before 1.21.11 it was called playersSleepingPercentage).

Skipping the night also clears the rain, so this often saves you /weather. It's the most comfortable setup on an SMP with friends: nobody has to beg in chat for everyone to go to bed.

In the Nether, the End and from the console

Since 26.1 time runs on “world clocks” and the Nether and the End have no clock of their own. If you're there (or you type it from the console and it isn't clear which world you mean), say which one: /time of minecraft:overworld set day.

Paper, which almost every server uses, keeps the time, weather and rules of each world separately. If you have several worlds (with Multiverse, for example), change the time or weather from inside the world you want, or with execute from the console: execute in minecraft:the_nether run gamerule advance_weather false.

If it doesn't work

“Unknown or incomplete command”: you aren't op or cheats aren't on in that world. In a singleplayer world, “Open to LAN” → “Allow Cheats” turns them on until you leave.

The rule comes up red or “Incorrect argument”: it's the old name (doDaylightCycle, doWeatherCycle) on 1.21.11 or later, or the other way round, the new name on an old version. Press Tab while typing /gamerule and the game shows you the ones it has.

It rains again after a while: you used /weather clear without stopping the weather. Add /gamerule advance_weather false or a long duration.

On Bedrock the rules didn't change: there they are /gamerule dodaylightcycle false and /gamerule doweathercycle false.

On NapNodes

Minecraft servers run Paper on the latest version, so the new rule names and /time pause work. From “Console” in the panel you type commands without the slash and make yourself op with op YourName.

Without commands: in “Settings” → “Game rules” → “World, time and weather” you'll find “Advance time of day” and “Update weather”, and “Sleep percentage” sets how many players need to be in bed. They change with the server on and apply to the world, the Nether and the End at once.

If you don't have a server yet, the free Minecraft server needs no card and has no end date: you start it when you want to play and it stops by itself when nobody's left. With the server off the world's clock doesn't run, so nobody misses any days.

Frequently asked questions