Talking about the Weather

Introduction

The weather, known as el tiempo or el clima in Spanish, is a versatile conversational topic. It's a safe topic that you can use to start conversations with strangers or acquaintances. People plan around the weather. It comes up a lot in everyday conversation. This lesson introduces you to common Spanish expressions related to the weather. Review the related vocabulary and phrases. Then get some practice by answering questions about the weather forecast (prognóstico) for different cities in Mexico and the United States.

Later, you can reinforce your learning by visiting a weather site like climamexico.mx and exploring the vocabulary they use to talk about the weather.

Localization Note: Folks in the United States are probably used to using Fahrenheit to measure temperature. During translation, measurements in Fahrenheit usually need to get localized to Celsius, an international standard. This lesson presents temperatures in C°.

Expressions

Spanish expression English expression
¿Qué tiempo hace? Hace buen/mal tiempo. What's the weather like? The weather is good/bad.
Hace (mucho) sol | calor | frío | viento
Hace fresco. 		It's (very) | sunny | hot | cold | windy
It's cool.
Llueve | Está lloviendo
Graniza | Está granizando
Nieva | Está nevando 		It rains / It's raining | It's raining
It hails / It's hailing | It's hailing
It snows / It's snowing | It's snowing
Está despejado.
Está (muy/parcialmente) nublado. | Hay niebla. 		It's clear out.
It's (very/partly) cloudy. | It's foggy.
Hay una tormenta. | Hay relámpagos y truenos.
Hay inundaciones. 		There's a storm. | There's lightning and thunder.
There are floods.
Es un día hermoso. It's a beautiful day.
mucho | muy a lot, very | very

Instructions

Start by reviewing the weather expressions and vocabulary introduced in the chart. Take the time to understand the grammar and notice the patterns in the expressions. Practice reading and saying the expressions.

When you're ready, you can practice answering questions about the weather forecast in Spanish. Select a city to see its weekly forecast, then read the question and click on the day(s) that match the weather condition described.

After you've selected your answer(s), click "Check Answer" to see if you're correct. Green checkmarks will appear on correct days, and red X's will appear on incorrect selections. When you answer correctly, click "Next Question" to continue.

Language and Speaking Note: Many Spanish weather expressions begin with "Hace". This construction assumes the subject of "el tiempo". For example: [El tiempo] hace calor. People often don't state "el tiempo" explicitly here.

Cities

Weekly Forecast

Select a city to see its weekly forecast.

Question

Select a city and the first question will appear.