How to Change Weather in Sims 4: A Complete Guide

Weather in The Sims 4 is more than a visual backdrop — it affects your Sims' moods, outdoor activities, gardening, and even social interactions. Whether you want a permanent summer or a dramatic blizzard, the game gives you several ways to take control. Here's exactly how it works.

What You Need First: The Seasons Expansion Pack

Before anything else: weather in The Sims 4 is only available if you own the Seasons expansion pack. The base game does not include weather mechanics. If you haven't installed Seasons, your world will have no rain, snow, or seasonal changes — and none of the methods below will apply.

Once Seasons is active, weather becomes a dynamic system tied to the current season. Each season has a default weather pattern, but you're not locked into it.

Method 1: Using the Weather Control Device 🌦️

The most accessible in-game option is the Weather Control Device, which your Sims can actually build and use.

• Requires: Handiness skill (level 10) or you can purchase it via a cheat
• How to access it: A Sim with maxed Handiness skill can craft it from the Woodworking Table, or you can use bb.showhiddenobjects in Build Mode to find and place it directly
• What it does: Lets your Sim interact with the device to manually trigger weather types — clear skies, rain, thunderstorms, snow, or fog

The device is the "lore-friendly" option. Your Sim walks up, selects a weather type, and the change takes effect in-game within a short time. It's tied to the current season, so some weather types may have limits depending on the time of year.

Method 2: Changing Weather with Cheats

For players who want instant control without skill requirements, cheats are the faster route.

Step 1: Enable cheats Open the cheat console with:

• PC/Mac:Ctrl + Shift + C
• Console: All four shoulder buttons simultaneously

Type testingcheats true and press Enter.

Step 2: Use weather cheats

The main cheat for weather is:

weather.summon_lightning_strike 

For broader weather control, the most widely used cheat is:

seasons.set_season_length [short/normal/long] 

But the most direct weather-change tool is accessed through the Shift+Click method:

• With testingcheats true active, Shift+Click on the ground outside
• A menu appears with options including "Make it Rain," "Make it Snow," "Make it Cloudy," and other weather triggers
• Select your preferred condition and it applies immediately

This is the fastest method for most players and requires no crafting or skills.

Method 3: Adjusting Seasonal Settings in Game Options

If your goal isn't to change weather moment-to-moment but to adjust what weather patterns appear throughout the year, use the Seasons settings menu:

1. Go to Game Options → Gameplay
2. Find the Seasons section
3. Here you can toggle things like "Temperature Effects on Sims" and adjust how aggressively seasons change

This doesn't let you hand-pick individual weather events, but it affects how dramatic and frequent weather shifts are across the whole game. Players who find constant rain disruptive often use this to soften the simulation.

Method 4: Using Mods (PC/Mac Only)

On PC and Mac, mods significantly expand weather control. The most commonly used is UI Cheats Extension, which lets you click directly on the weather HUD to change conditions. Other mods offer:

• Persistent weather — lock a specific type indefinitely
• Custom weather probability tables — change how often each condition appears per season
• Temperature control — adjust exact temperature ranges

🔧 Mods require the correct version compatibility with your current game patch. An outdated mod can cause instability, so checking update dates before installing matters.

How Weather Type Availability Varies by Season

Not every weather type is available in every season, even with the Weather Control Device or cheats. The game's internal logic ties certain conditions to specific seasons:

Cheats can override some of these constraints, but certain extreme crossovers (like a heat wave in winter) may behave unexpectedly or revert after time passes.

Variables That Affect Your Experience

The "right" method for changing weather depends on a few things that vary from player to player:

• Platform — Mods are only an option on PC/Mac. Console players are limited to in-game tools and cheats
• Playstyle — Roleplay-focused players may prefer the Weather Control Device for immersion; others want instant cheat access
• Game version — Cheat syntax and Shift+Click menus can change after patches, so a method that worked last month may need a small adjustment
• Mods already installed — Some mods conflict with weather cheats or alter how weather responds to manual changes
• Ownership of Seasons — Without the expansion, none of this applies

When Weather Reverts on Its Own

One thing worth knowing: manually triggered weather does not always persist. The game's seasonal engine will eventually reassert its default patterns. If you change weather via cheat or device and it keeps reverting, that's expected behavior — not a bug.

To maintain a specific weather type long-term without mods, you'd need to trigger it repeatedly, or use a mod designed to lock conditions in place.

How long those manual changes hold, and how much that matters to your gameplay, depends entirely on what you're trying to do with your save. 🎮