Sky

The Overworld sky during day with the sun, clouds, and some fog near the horizon

The Overworld sky during night with the moon, clouds, and stars

The sky is a visual feature of Minecraft worlds rendered behind all objects in the game. It changes color depending on the time of day, biome, weather, and altitude.‌^{[BE only]} In or around the sky are other graphical features such as the sun and clouds.

The sky technically only exists in the Overworld with Vibrant Visuals disabled, with "Beautiful Skies" enabled, and while the camera is not in lava, water, or powder snow. The atmosphere around the world in other circumstances consists of fog, with the End sky texture in the End.

Description

The sky is a uniform color in the atmosphere that fades into transparency from zenith to the horizon, reaching full transparency at 7° above the horizon. The sky is rendered before fog, making objects in the sky that are faded by fog distinguishable from the sky. The transparency near the horizon causes the fog color to take over the atmosphere.

In the sky are several visual objects that are not faded by fog:

• The sun, which rotates around the world with the daylight cycle, and also has some visual effects.‌^{[BE only]} It is not visible during precipitation (except dry biomes)‌^{[BE only]} or at nighttime.‌^{[BE only]}
• The moon rotates on the opposite side of the sun. It has different phases which have some gameplay effects. It is not visible during precipitation (except dry biomes)‌^{[BE only]} or at daytime.‌^{[BE only]}
• Stars rotate with the sun and the moon. They fade in during sunset, and disappear during sunrise. They are not visible during precipitiation.
• Clouds are objects within the world that slowly move westward. They are faded with the render distance‌^{[BE only]}/environmental fog‌^{[JE only]} and have varying transparencies and colors depending on the daylight cycle and weather.

Colors

At night, the sky color is always
 #000000, and during sunset and sunrise this gradually fades with the biome-dependent daytime colors. In Bedrock Edition, a set color is applied on top of biome colors during precipitation:

• During rainfall or snowfall at day (not in dry biomes):
   rgb(103, 103, 103) for 100%
• During thunderstorms or when a wither is nearby at day:
   rgb(51, 51, 51) blended for 75% with regular colors, or rainfall colors if there is also rain.
• When lightning strikes, the sky flashes multiple times:
   rgb(204, 204, 255) blended for 45% with all previous colors. This can be disabled with the "Hide Sky Flashes" setting.

• 
  Rain
• 
  Thunderstorm
• 
  Thunderstorm when lightning strikes

In Bedrock Edition, the daytime sky color changes depending on the camera's altitude. If the world is not a flat world, and the camera is not in lava and not in powder snow, the brightness gradually lowers between Y=32 and Y=-11 while the vignette fades in. Below Y=-11, the sky suddenly turns pure black and the vignette gets its full opacity. Above Y=32, the sky gradually brightens and gets a more purple color, which becomes noticeable above roughly Y=2000.

When the sky color changes, it visually fades from the previous color to the next one in seconds.

Daytime biome colors

The following tables list how the base sky color is affected by the biome at daytime and during rainfall.‌^{[JE only]}

Biome	Color	Color during rain‌[JE only]
Desert Badlands Eroded Badlands Wooded Badlands Windswept Savanna Nether Wastes Soul Sand Valley Crimson Forest Warped Forest Basalt Deltas Savanna‌[JE only] Savanna Plateau‌[JE only] Desert Hills‌[BE only] Desert Lakes‌[BE only] Shattered Savanna Plateau‌[BE only] Badlands Plateau‌[BE only] Modified Badlands Plateau‌[BE only] Modified Wooded Badlands Plateau‌[BE only]	#6EB1FF	#66768A
Savanna‌[BE only]	#77AAFF	-
Stony Peaks Savanna Plateau‌[BE only]	#76A8FF	#677389
Jungle Bamboo Jungle Sparse Jungle Mushroom Fields Lush Caves‌[BE only] Jungle Hills‌[BE only] Modified Jungle‌[BE only] Bamboo Jungle Hills‌[BE only] Modified Jungle Edge‌[BE only] Mushroom Field Shore‌[BE only]	#77A8FF
Plains Sunflower Plains Beach SwampMangrove Swamp Deep DarkSulfur Caves Dripstone Caves‌[JE only] Swamp Hills‌[BE only]	#78A7FF
Forest Flower Forest Dark Forest Wooded Hills‌[BE only] Tall Birch Hills‌[BE only] Dark Forest Hills‌[BE only]	#79A6FF	#677289
Birch Forest Old Growth Birch Forest Birch Forest Hills‌[BE only]	#7AA5FF
Ocean Deep Ocean Warm Ocean Lukewarm Ocean Deep Lukewarm Ocean Cold Ocean Deep Cold Ocean Deep Frozen Ocean River Lush Caves‌[JE only] Meadow‌[JE only] Cherry Grove‌[JE only] The Void‌[JE only] Deep Warm Ocean‌[BE only]	#7BA4FF
Old Growth Pine TaigaDappled Forest Meadow‌[BE only] Cherry Grove‌[BE only] Giant Tree Taiga Hills‌[BE only] Giant Spruce Taiga Hills‌[BE only]	#7CA3FF	#677188
Windswept Hills Windswept Forest Windswept Gravelly Hills Stony Shore Dripstone Caves‌[BE only] Gravelly Mountains+‌[BE only] Mountain Edge‌[BE only]	#7DA2FF	#687188
Taiga Old Growth Spruce Taiga Taiga Hills‌[BE only] Taiga Mountains‌[BE only]	#7DA3FF
Snowy Plains Ice Spikes Frozen Ocean Frozen River Snowy BeachIce Caves​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026] Snowy Mountains‌[BE only] Legacy Frozen Ocean‌[BE only]	#7FA1FF
Grove	#81A0FF	#697088
Snowy Slopes	#829FFF
Snowy Taiga Snowy Taiga Hills‌[BE only] Snowy Taiga Mountains‌[BE only]	#839EFF
Jagged Peaks Frozen Peaks	#859DFF	#696F88
Pale Garden	#B9B9B9	#818181
The End Small End Islands‌[JE only] End Barrens‌[JE only] End Midlands‌[JE only] End Highlands‌[JE only]	#000000

History

Java Edition

Java Edition pre-Classic
Cave game tech test							Added the sky.
Java Edition Classic
0.0.14a							Added clouds to the sky.
0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST							Changed sky color from  #7FCCFF to  #99CCFF.
Java Edition Indev
20100211-2327							Added the sun and moon to the sky.
Java Edition Infdev
20100227-1414							Added a 1536×1536 test skybox, which is completely blue.
20100313							Removed the test skybox.
20100618							Changed the model of the sky.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0			preview				The sky now has a red glow during sunrise and sunset.
							Sky color is now dependent on biome temperature/humidity values.
Java Edition
1.21.11			25w45a				The color of the sky during sunrises and sunsets is now affected by rain and thunder.
Upcoming Java Edition
26.4			snap2				When "Improved Transparency" is on, sky background and clouds that are behind the terrain are now blended into the terrain render distance fog making the boundary between the sky and the terrain invisible.
							In the Overworld, the bottom half of the skybox is now occluding the celestial objects such as the sun, the moon and the stars.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
Demo							Added the sky.
v0.6.0							Added clouds to the sky.
0.7.3							Added the sun, the moon, and stars to the sky.

Issues

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

Gallery

• 
  The sky in plains with no celestial bodies. Note that it fades into fog near the horizon.
• 
  The sky in a pale garden
• 
  The sky at midnight. Notice the fog having a slightly different color.
• 
  The sky during sunset
• 
  The sky in Bedrock Edition during thunder in dry biomes, or when a wither is nearby, which has the same color as thunderstorm sky but the fog does not.
• 
  The sky deep in the void in Bedrock Edition
• 
  The sky at extremely high altitudes
• 
  A single biome world of the End has a unique black sky color