How does weather (e.g., rain, snow, clouds) affect Starlink signal quality?

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How Much Does Weather Affect Starlink's Signal? In short: Yes, there's an impact, but it's not as bad as you might think.

You can imagine Starlink's signal as the light from a flashlight. Shining from a satellite in the sky (the flashlight) towards the receiver dish on your roof (your eyes). Weather acts like an obstacle between them.

1. The Biggest Enemies: Heavy Rain and Wet Snow

Heavy Rain This is the most significant factor affecting the signal. Starlink uses very high-frequency signals. The advantage of these high frequencies is speed and high bandwidth, but their drawback is weaker penetration, especially through water. Dense raindrops absorb and scatter the signal, much like how you can't see distant streetlights clearly in a heavy downpour.
- What will the experience be like? Internet speed will noticeably decrease, and latency (ping) might increase. If the rain is extremely heavy, reaching "downpour" levels, the signal might briefly drop for a few minutes. However, once the rain subsides a bit, it will quickly recover.
Wet Snow and Freezing Rain Dry, fluffy snowflakes don't actually have much impact. What's problematic is wet, heavy snow, or freezing rain. They can accumulate directly on your "dish" (antenna), forming a physical barrier that effectively blocks the signal.
- Starlink's Solution: Engineers anticipated this. Starlink's "dish" (officially named Dishy McFlatface) has a built-in heating function. When it detects low temperatures or snow accumulation, it automatically heats up to melt the snow. This feature is quite effective, ensuring the dish surface remains clear and doesn't affect the signal in most cases. Of course, melting snow consumes more power.

2. Less Significant Factors: Clouds, Fog, Light Rain

Clouds Ordinary clouds, even on an overcast day, have a negligible impact on the signal; you'll barely notice it. Only extremely thick, moisture-laden cumulonimbus clouds (thunderstorm clouds) might cause a slight signal attenuation, but it's far less severe than direct rainfall.
Fog Fog is also composed of tiny water droplets, so theoretically, it has an impact. However, because the density of water droplets in fog is much lower than in heavy rain, its effect on the signal is very minimal and can be virtually ignored in daily use.
Light/Moderate Rain Drizzle or moderate rain might slow your internet speed down a tiny bit, but it usually won't affect your ability to stream videos or play games normally.

3. Factors with Virtually No Impact: Wind and Temperature

Wind Wind itself does not interfere with radio signals. However, if the wind is strong enough to make your "dish" sway or even change its orientation, then the signal will definitely be affected. Therefore, a stable installation is crucial.
Temperature Whether it's extreme heat or severe cold, as long as the equipment itself is within its operating temperature range, temperature has no impact on signal transmission itself.

In Summary

Starlink's biggest adversary is "water", especially a high density of liquid water, such as heavy rain.
Snow accumulation is primarily handled by the "dish" itself heating up to melt it, which works very well in most situations.
Most common bad weather conditions (overcast skies, light rain, fog, snow) have very little impact on Starlink; you might not even notice it.
Even if signal interruptions occur during extreme weather, they are usually brief, lasting only a few minutes, and connectivity quickly restores once the weather improves.

Overall, Starlink's engineers have thoroughly considered weather factors during design and implemented many optimizations. For an average user, its reliability is already quite high, so there's no need to overly worry about weather causing you to lose internet connection.