According to Genesis, what was the duration of the rain during Noah’s Ark flood?

According to Genesis, rain fell for forty days and forty nights during Noah’s Ark flood. Genesis 7:12 gives that duration after Noah and the animals entered the vessel.

The forty-day rain period is not the same as the entire time Noah spent in the ark. Genesis also describes the waters prevailing for 150 days, and the narrative places Noah’s departure after a much longer sequence of waiting, drying, and observing the receding floodwaters.

This distinction matters because popular summaries often say simply that the Flood lasted forty days. In the biblical chronology, forty days describes the continuing rain, while the broader flood episode extends far beyond that period.

The number forty also appears elsewhere in biblical stories, including Moses’ time on Mount Sinai and Israel’s wilderness journey. Those parallels are literary and theological associations; they do not change the specific weather duration stated in the Noah narrative.