Weather

Overview

The weather system was added in Update 1.195 as a core feature. Weather can be toggled on or off using the "Advanced" button on the world options page from the main menu (can't be toggle while in-game without using admin commands). Different weather types now spawn randomly on different planets and moons. For a complete guide, see Official Survival Guide: Weather on the Space Engineers page on Steam.

Weather Types

Fog

Fog is a weather effect that spawns on Earthlike, Triton, Alien, and Titan. Fog is the most power-dangerous weather in the game due to the very low wind experienced inside of it. For areas with lots of fog, it is best to seek alternative power sources through solar panels, hydrogen engines, or reactors.

Sandstorms

Sandstorms spawn on Earthlike, Alien, Mars, and Titan. They occlude vision drastically and almost completely block solar panels from collecting light. Wind turbines experience a large increase in power output due to the wind speed. Mars sandstorms are special, they have lightning, you might want to setup a decoy array!

Snow

Snow spawns on Earthlike, Alien, Triton, Mars, and Europa. It has very low wind speed and temperature. It's best to use solar panels in the light variant of this weather since not much sun is occluded.

Thunderstorms

Thunderstorms can spawn on Earthlike and Alien. Thunderstorms are arguably the most dangerous weather for grids, though damage can be prevented if you know your stuff. Lightning in thunderstorms has a low chance of hitting your grid or player, if it hits your grid, you may want to have a decoy in place. Decoys are the lightning rod of SE, antennas will be struck if you do not have one. If you don't have a decoy or antenna, a random functional block will be struck with lightning. You can also prevent any lightning from hitting your grid by moving underground. Decoys provide a safety radius of 50 meters.

Rain

Rain can spawn on Earthlike and Alien. Rain is not a dangerous weather effect, it slightly affects wind and solar power, you should not need to worry at all about this weather, enjoy it!

Electrical Storms

Electrical storms only spawn on Pertam, a new planet added in 1.197. Electrical storms are the most dangerous weather in the game because of the high rate of lightning strikes. The electrical storm is visually a sandstorm, with some minor adjustments. Lightning damage can be prevented through the use of decoys or antennas. Decoys provided a protection range of 50 meters.

Weather on Planets

Earthlike

• Fog can spawn in most locations on Earthlike excluding deserts, it is not a common weather type with rain or thunderstorms taking priority.
• Sandstorms can spawn in the deserts.
• It will only snow where there is snow on Earthlike.
• Thunderstorms spawn everywhere but deserts and snowy biomes.
• Rain spawns in the same areas as thunderstorms.

Triton

• Fog only spawns on the ice plains of Triton. It is the perfect zone to keep a pack of backup solar panels due to the lack of surface features.
• Triton lies in almost constant light snow. There may only be a few minutes with clear skies. You may experience slight frostbite when visiting.

Alien

• Fog can spawn at ice lakes or grassy biomes. It is much more dangerous than normal fog due to the toxic air that comes with it. It can be easily identified through the green hue.
• Sandstorms spawn in deserts and yellow grass areas.
• Like Earthlike, snow will only spawn where there is snow.
• Thunderstorms spawn everywhere but snowy/icy biomes.
• Rain spawns in the same areas as thunderstorms.

Mars

• Almost all areas of Mars experiences sandstorms, the poles of the planet are safest.
• Very rarely, it may snow a short time at the poles of Mars.

Titan

• Fog can spawn at the ice lakes of Titan, it behaves the same as Alien's in that it is toxic.
• All but the ice lakes of Titan experiences sandstorms.

Europa

• Like Triton, Europa has very common weather though it is much more intense.

Pertam

• Electrical Storms spawn anywhere on Pertam.

Admin Menu

In Update 1.195, an admin screen for weather was added, it is much simpler than typing commands as you do not need to remember specific weather types or syntax. It is also better for XBOX players that may use it in the future.

Force Random Weather

This button will create a random weather using the planet's automatic weather system, it will select a random weather the same as it would automatically. This will remove/override any already existing weather at your position.

Create Lightning

This button will create lightning at the position you are looking at, ignoring any existing weather.

Create Weather

This button will create the weather selected in the above drop-down menu. It will remove/override any already existing weather at your position.

Replace Weather

This button will replace the current weather with the selected one in the drop-down menu, instead of removing/overriding the existing one, it will only replace what type of weather is running and continue to keep position/velocity/life.

Remove Weather

This button will remove any existing weather at your position.