No Rain during Thunderstorm

I simply executed the command "/weather thunder". No rain appeared, but I could hear thunder. I saw a couple creepers and decided to test channeling. It worked to generate a super charged creeper, but lit on fire. Sadly the poor creeper died which would not normally happen in the rain. I tried using Riptide in this rain-less storm and it did not work.

 

The biome was Savannah/desert.