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How to Create Custom Weather for Iracing Sessions

How to create custom weather for iRacing sessions: a step guide for drivers: set track temp, cloud, wind and rain inside the sim and fix weather problems fast.

If you want to control wind, cloud, rain and temperature in iRacing, the short answer is: set weather when you create a Hosted, League, or Test Drive session and save a preset. You’re in the right place — below is a plain, practical walkthrough to get a custom weather setup working fast.

Quick Answer: how to create custom weather for iracing sessions

In iRacing, custom weather is created when you make a Hosted, League, or Test Drive session. Open the session settings, choose Static (for fixed conditions) or Dynamic (for changing conditions), change air/track temp, cloud cover, precipitation, wind and time-of-day sliders, then save the preset for reuse.

What’s Really Going On

iRacing separates official series (where the organizer controls weather) from Hosted/League/Test sessions (where you control weather). Custom weather means manually choosing the environmental values instead of using a default or randomized official preset. Changing weather affects grip, tire heat, visibility and lap times, so you usually set it for practice, leagues, or specific training scenarios.

Key points:

  • Official public races use the series organiser’s settings — you can’t override those.
  • Hosted and League sessions let you define and save weather presets.
  • Use Static for repeatable testing; use Dynamic to simulate realistic change over time.

Step-by-Step Fix

  1. Create or edit a Hosted/League session (in-sim or on the iRacing website) and go to Session or Race Settings.
  2. Find the Weather section and toggle between Static (fixed) and Dynamic (changing). Choose Static if you want the exact conditions to repeat.
  3. Adjust primary sliders: Air temperature, Track temperature (if available), Cloud cover, Precipitation chance/intensity, Wind speed/direction, Fog and Time of day. Keep changes small and test — big jumps can make the car behave unpredictably.
  4. Preview using Test Drive or start a short Practice session to confirm grip and visibility match your goal. Adjust values if needed.
  5. Save the weather as a preset (look for the Save/Save Preset or disk icon) and name it clearly. This lets you load identical weather next time.
  6. Share settings with teammates by exporting the preset if you know how, or by sending a screenshot/list of slider values so they can recreate it.

Extra Tips / Checklist

  • Use Static weather for setup work and tire testing — it removes variable changes that mask setup differences.
  • Use Dynamic weather for race practice to learn pit timing and changing grip.
  • If track temp isn’t editable, it may be calculated from air temp and cloud; raise air temp and lower cloud to increase track temp.
  • Save presets with descriptive names (e.g., “NightDry_26C_5kphWind”) so teammates load the same environment.
  • Remember: Official series control weather — your custom presets do not apply to those events.

FAQs

Q: Can I use custom weather in official iRacing races?
A: No. Official series weather is set by the series organiser. Custom weather only applies to Hosted, League, and Test Drive sessions.

Q: How can I test a preset before a race?
A: Launch a short Practice or use Test Drive with the preset loaded to check grip, visibility and tire behavior.

Q: Why won’t my weather settings save?
A: Make sure you’re creating a Hosted/League session while logged into the same account, then click the Save Preset button. Presets don’t save for official sessions.

Q: Will custom weather affect my SR or iRating?
A: No — SR (Safety Rating) and iRating are tied to official races. Hosted session results don’t change those ratings.

Wrap-Up

Creating custom weather in iRacing is a session-creation step: choose Hosted/League/Test, set Static or Dynamic, tweak sliders, test, and save. For repeatable setup work use Static and save a preset — you’ll get consistent conditions and better data from every practice.