Podcast 111 B2 - The weather

If you ever go to the UK, one subject that you'll need to learn how to talk about is the weather.

'Nice weather today, isn't it, Mrs Jones?'
'Can't complain. Can't complain, Mrs Smith. It was raining all day yesterday but today has turned out nice for a change.'
'Weather forecast says it'll be sunny and warm all day!'
'I'll believe that when I see it.
'Mind you, it'll be cold and wet tomorrow though!'
'Best to make the most of the good weather then.'
'Very true! Very true, Mrs Jones!'

Mrs Smith and Mrs Jones talking about the weather
Mrs Smith and Mrs Jones talking about the weather

Expressions to talk about good weather

Yes, yes. Because the weather changes so frequently in just one day in the UK, it's an important talking point. So today I'm going to look at weather words - different ways to describe the weather. This is a B2 level podcast but B1 students will also need most of this weather terminology because it's important to know how to talk about the weather for both these levels. Remember that in the Cambridge Preliminary and First Certificate speaking exams, the topic of the weather might come up in the pictures of part 2 or part 3. So let's go...

Shall we talk about the good weather first? I'm afraid that we don't have a lot of good weather in the UK but here are some examples. Firstly, the collocations we can use with weather:

Good weather, nice weather, fine weather, lovely weather, beautiful weather, fantastic weather.

Those collocations are more or less in order from good, getting better and even better.

To have good weather, you need the sun. But the sun has a habit of disappearing. We say,

The sun has gone behind a cloud.
The sun has gone in.

The second one means the same as the first. Then it can be a little hazy. When it's hazy, visibility is bad and the sun's rays are very weak. So when it's misty, for example, we can say it's hazy and we talk about hazy sunshine.

If you're lucky,

The sun comes out.

That means the sun moves from behind a cloud. In the UK, we often say,

It's nice when the sun's out.

So, when the sun is out,

It's hot / It's sunny / It's bright.

Notice we must use the subject 'it' to talk about weather conditions.

It's a lovely sunny day today!
Today, it's hot and sunny.

Sometimes in the UK (but not very often) the sun can get too warm. This usually happens when there is a lot of humidity. We say the weather is muggy. In fact, on some days the weather can be quite oppressive - very uncomfortable even though the temperature doesn't go much over 30 degrees Celsius or Centigrade (although the Americans still say Fahrenheit. And a lot of older British people also talk in Fahrenheit too).

If the day is just hot (not muggy), we often use extreme adjectives like: scorching or boiling.

It's boiling today. I'm going to stay in the shade.

Remember the noun of hot is the heat. So we say things like:

I just can't take the heat. I stay indoors on a hot day!

Probably everybody is happier when the weather is just warm and pleasant.

It's a nice, warm day, isn't it?

You will also hear the word mild too. Mild means not warm or cold but somewhere in between. We often say 'mild' when the weather is cooler than usual in summer or warmer than usual in winter.

Ooh! It's really quite mild today, isn't it?

Expressions to talk about bad weather

So what about the opposites? Well, if hot weather happens in summer, then we get cold weather in winter, of course. The adjectives we can use are chilly, icy and the extreme adjective freezing to talk about temperatures.

It's freezing out today. If you go out, make sure you wrap up well!

Then there are all sorts of weather conditions that accompany cold weather: snow, sleet, hail, ice and wind. So, snow is white, of course and very cold. 'Sleet' is like a mixture of rain and snow - nobody likes sleet! You can't make a snowman with it - it just makes driving conditions very bad. And 'hail' are those little balls of ice that fall out of the sky. Sometimes hailstones can be the size of golf balls and even damage cars when they fall. Ice is the same stuff we put in drinks to make the drink cold but when it's icy on the road, it's best to leave your car in the garage. Some of those words: 'snow' and 'hail' are nouns and verbs. So we can say.

It hailed here last night,

or,

It's been snowing all night.

Some words are common as adjectives too ending in 'y'.

A windy day / A snowy mountain / Icy roads.

Wind doesn't always have to be unpleasant. In fact, in summer, it's nice to have a cool breeze - which is a gentle wind. In autumn and spring we often get storms in the UK and then we say,

It's very blustery today. The wind nearly took my head scarf off!

That means the wind is strong at times and it can even blow down trees.

The word gale is also used to talk about strong wind and we say,

It's blowing a gale outside. It's blown the washing off the line!

And as all European school children know, the UK can have a lot of fog. And if you mix smoke from city pollution with fog you get the word smog, which is dirty fog. You've seen it in the old black and white films of Sherlock Holmes! Interestingly, however, London is cleaner now than it was then and smog, fortunately, is less common. Mist is a nicer, lighter form of fog and can offer the walker in the countryside with lovely views: misty hills or a mist over the sea.

They say the Eskimos have fifty words to talk about different types of snow. That's because they get a lot of it. So, it makes sense that as Britain gets a lot of rain, we have lots of words to talk about different types of rain. So starting from the weakest or gentlest rain, we have:

It's spitting (a few drops of rain), it's drizzling (a very fine rain), a shower (brief period of rainfall), it's raining heavily, it's pouring, a downpour, a deluge, etc. etc. and every English student's favourite:

It's raining cats and dogs.

Although perhaps the British don't use that expression as often as the English learning textbooks say we do. Anyway, all this wonderful rain, which makes Britain so green comes with thunder (big bangs in the sky) so we talk about thundery weather and lightning (flashes of bright lights of millions of volts of electricity).

As I've said before, I live in the south of Spain, where the weather is very dry and we just get a few wet days in winter. In a way, I miss the changeable weather of Britain. The weather is definitely more exciting in Britain and you can see why we talk about the weather so often. Never a dull moment - as the British say!

Goodbye for now. Until next time.