100 Weather Expressions in English Advanced Vocabulary Lesson
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa from, SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to talk about the weather?
Let’s do it.
Vanessa:
Have you ever felt like you use the same words
again and again?
It’s a sunny day.
I think it’s going to rain.
Those are great, but do you know what, there
are so many more natural expressions to describe
the weather and because weather is one of
the most common small talk topics, this is
a great way to master something and feel confident
in it.
Every day, you can just look outside, look
out the window, describe the weather in English
and you’re building your vocabulary step by
step.
Some English websites and textbooks use hundreds
of weather expressions, but we don’t really
use those in daily life, unless your job is
to be the weatherman on TV.
So I have good news, today I’m going to share
with you 100 real English weather expressions
that we definitely use in daily life and I
hope that you can too.
Vanessa:
I broke down these 100 expressions into some
different categories.
So today we’re going to talk about how to
describe the sun, sky, air, rain, cold, temperature,
and some common questions that you’re going
to hear and you can ask to talk about the
weather.
All right, let’s get started by talking about
the sun.
There are three common sentence structures
that we use to talk about the weather.
You could say, “It’s sunny, it’s a sunny day
or more casually, it’s a sunny one today.”
I’m going to be using those three pretty simple
sentence structures throughout this lesson,
so I hope that you’ll feel confident and comfortable
using them yourself.
Let’s change out that word sunny.
Sunny is just a generic term for the sun is
shining, but what else could you say to be
a little bit more specific?
“It’s nice and warm today.
It’s March now, so at the end of winter, it’s
really nice to have a day that is nice and
warm.”
Vanessa:
Those two words usually go together or you
might say, “Oh, it’s a bright one today.
The sun is really bright.”
Great expression.
“Oh man, it’s hot.
It’s a hot one today.”
All of these expressions are getting stronger
and stronger.
They’re getting warmer and warmer, hotter
and hotter.
Or you could say, “It’s boiling.”
When you boil water, bubbles form in the water
and that is extremely hot.
Of course, this is an exaggeration, but you’re
probably going to see that in a lot of these
weather expressions, they are exaggerations,
“It’s boiling.”
Or you can say, “It’s scorching.
And this kind of feels like your in an oven.
“It is scorching or it’s a scorching one today.”
Or you could say, “It’s a scorcher.”
That means it’s really hot.
Sometimes when it’s hot outside, the air texture
is also different, so you might say, “It’s
muggy, it’s humid, it feels like you’re swimming
outside.”
Vanessa:
You can get the sense that the air is thick
with moisture.
It’s not because it’s raining, but just because
it feels like a swimming pool.
You’re sweating, the air is thick.
If you’ve experienced weather like this, you
definitely know what it’s like.
Here where I live, in the summer, it’s pretty
common to have humid weather.
The air is humid or it just feels muggy.
It’s kind of miserable in my opinion, but
that’s pretty common when you have hot weather,
it’s sometimes also muggy.
Vanessa:
All right.
What we’re going to do now is I have a special
segment for you.
You’re going to be seeing my husband, Dan
and I looking at some weather pictures that
have to do with vocabulary we just talked
about and Dan and I are going to briefly have
a quick conversation about those pictures
describing the weather.
So you’re going to hear us naturally describe
them.
You might hear some of the same words, you
might hear different new words, but I hope
that you’ll be able to see that, yeah, we
really use these in daily life.
All right, let’s go.
I’m here with my husband, Dan.
Dan:
Hello.
Vanessa:
If you can see us small in the little corner
over here and we’re going to be talking about
these four pictures that have to do with the
words that you just learned or maybe you’ll
learn some new words.
So when you look at this first picture of
the guy snowboarding, how would you describe
the weather of that picture?
Dan:
Well, I’d probably say first it’s a really
clear and sunny day.
Honestly, I’d probably say it’s cold first,
just because there’s snow, but then I’d follow
it up with, it’s very clear and sunny or I’d
say it’s a perfect day for snowboarding.
Vanessa:
Oh yeah.
It looks really bright, the way the sun is
reflecting, especially off the camera.
It looks like a bright day, clear, sunny.
But compared to that, what about the next
picture of the boat?
Dan:
The top right one?
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah, the picture of the boat, I would say
it’s misty, although I suppose it could be
pretty humid.
I’m not sure.
What would you say?
Vanessa:
Yeah, I would say misty, humid, muggy.
If this is in the South of the US, I imagine
that it’s pretty muggy, even if this is the
early morning hours.
Dan:
Yeah, muggy is like when you walk outside
and you feel the water on your body, it’s
basically the same thing as humid.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Which might relate to the next picture in
the jungle.
Dan:
Yeah, in that jungle, I would definitely say
humid.
It just looks really wet in there and you
could probably feel the water.
When you breathe, you feel like you’re breathing
in thick air.
Could even say, thick.
Thick and muggy.
Vanessa:
Thick, muggy, humid.
Usually this is not ideal conditions for me,
but some of you that might be the norm.
What about the last picture, which is kind
of the opposite of what we just talked about?
Dan:
Yeah, so the first word I would use to describe
this would just be dry, but it’s because of
all that broken ground there, but you could
say it’s scorched, scorched earth, or scorching
hot.
Vanessa:
Ah, yes.
We can use the word scorched in a couple of
different ways.
It’s scorched earth.
It’s scorching outside.
The weather’s scorchy.
It’s a scorcher.
Sure, we can say all of those things.
Dan:
It’s a scorcher, that’s more slang.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Great.
Thanks for your help.
Dan:
You’re welcome.
Vanessa:
I hope you enjoyed that special segment.
Now we’re going to go onto the next category,
which is describing types of sky or air.
It’s clear.
It’s a clear day, not a cloud in the sky.
That’s a common expression that we use to
talk about a clear day, not a cloud in the
sky.
You could add there’s, at the beginning, there’s
not a cloud in the sky, but if you just want
it to be more casual, cut it off and say,
“Whoa, not a cloud in the sky today.”
Perfectly fine.
But what if there are some clouds?
You could simply say, “It’s cloudy or it’s
partially cloudy.”
That means that there’s some clouds, but it’s
not completely cloudy.
It’s cloudy, it’s partially cloudy, or it’s
overcast.
This kind of has a dark feeling to this word,
it’s overcast.
That means that you can’t see any sky at all.
Vanessa:
In fact, today, it is completely overcast.
There is no sun.
It’s overcast.
It’s kind of darker than it would normally
be because you can’t see the sun through the
clouds.
Or you might say, “It looks threatening.”
Threatening.
What is threatening you here?
Are the clouds coming down and saying, “Vanessa,
you better behave.”
No.
In this situation, it looks like rain is most
definitely going to happen, or some kind of
storm is coming.
You can imagine dark clouds, maybe they’re
moving quickly.
Maybe the shape of the clouds makes you think,
ah, there’s probably going to be a big storm.
So if you’re hiking and you look up and you
see threatening clouds, you can use this expression,
“It looks threatening.
I think we should turn back.”
Threatening.
Vanessa:
In the spring especially, it’s pretty common
for it to be windy.
It’s a windy day or, oh, it’s pretty breezy.
I need to tie my hair back, it’s breezy.
What about the word blustery?
Now this is a little bit more formal and I
feel like you’re more likely to hear this
on a TV weather program, it’s a blustery day
today.
But you might hear some people use this in
daily life.
It’s a blustery one today, just kind of in
a casual way to say, “Oh, it’s really windy.
The wind is blowing pretty strongly.
It’s not a hurricane or anything, but it’s
still a blustery day.
It’s a breezy day or it’s simply windy.”
Now it’s time to go onto the special section
with my husband, Dan, where we’re going to
be describing some pictures of the sky or
of the wind.
Let’s go.
Here we have four new pictures talking about
the sky or the air.
Dan:
Lots of mountains in these pictures.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
When I was looking at pictures-
Dan:
I want to go to these places, it looks really
pretty.
Vanessa:
A lot of them had mountains or the ocean.
I guess that’s kind of the most picturesque
places to take pictures.
But what would you say about this top left
picture?
The one that has some houses in it.
Dan:
There’s some a wispy clouds in this photograph.
But just in general, I’d say it’s partly cloudy.
That’s what I would say.
Vanessa:
It’s not completely clear.
It’s just partly cloudy.
I think that’s exact expression I would use
as well.
Dan:
That’s what the weatherman would say.
Vanessa:
Yeah and us.
What about the next one with these rugged
mountains?
This is actually in Hawaii.
Super cool.
Dan:
I would just keep it simple again and just
say cloudy, it’s a cloudy day.
Vanessa:
I would say it’s overcast because there’s
no sun.
It’s kind of dreary and dark.
And when you have an overcast day, you can’t
see any sun.
But in that first picture you can see some
sun, you can see the blue sky through the
clouds, but when it’s overcast it’s just completely
covered in clouds, like that picture.
Dan:
Yeah.
And if you get a few days of that in a row,
some people might say it’s just miserable
outside and they’re probably talking about
a sky that’s gray.
Vanessa:
Yeah, a gray sky.
Dan:
So it’s a gray sky.
Vanessa:
What about the next one?
Where the clouds are a little bit darker?
Dan:
Yeah, I would again probably say cloudy first,
but I could say it looks potentially stormy,
like it might rain soon.
Vanessa:
I would use the word threatening because if
I was hiking and I saw the clouds roll in
like this, I would probably say, “Oh, I should
find some shelter or we should find our way
back to our car.”
Dan:
Do you think you’d say the clouds look threatening
or would you just say it looks threatening
out there?
Vanessa:
Oh, I think you could say either, the clouds
looked threatening or just it looks threatening,
simply it.
The weather.
The sky looks threatening.
What about the last one though?
Beautiful day.
Dan:
Well, again, it’s a partly cloudy day, but
it looks quite windy.
It looks very windy or breezy.
I’m not in the photograph, so I don’t know
how strong the wind is blowing, but usually
when you’re standing near a body of water,
the wind is coming in your face.
Kind of refreshing.
Vanessa:
It’s a little bit breezy, a little bit windy.
I probably wouldn’t say that this is blustery.
Dan:
Could be though.
Vanessa:
I feel like blustery is a little bit more
chaotic, it’s not a comfortable wind.
But this is a beautiful water beach scene
that might be a little more comfortable.
Dan:
Certainly not raging.
Vanessa:
Yeah, not a raging wind.
Dan:
Do you say raging winds?
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Dan:
Some people might.
Vanessa:
Or a raging storm.
Well, thanks so much for your help with these
words.
Dan:
You’re welcome.
Vanessa:
I hope you enjoyed that segment where we talked
about the sky.
Next we’re going to be talking about types
of rain.
I noticed when I was writing and trying to
do some research for this lesson, that there
are a lot of descriptions for rain and cold
weather.
Maybe it’s because English originated in England
and it’s pretty common weather to have lots
of rain.
But there are significantly more expressions
to talk about, downfall, things that are coming
out of the sky, precipitation, than just a
sunny or a cloudy day.
So let’s get started.
A common sentence structure that you might
hear is, they’re calling for rain or they
said it’s going to rain.
Who is they?
They here is simply the weather channel, maybe
even the app on your phone.
A lot of people don’t even watch the weather
on TV anymore, they just look on an app on
their phone, but you can still use they, they’re
calling for rain.
Somebody, maybe some program wrote that on
your phone and it’s just that you’re not the
one deciding it, they are calling for rain.
They said it’s going to rain.
Vanessa:
Now let’s talk about different levels of precipitation.
Precipitation could be anything falling from
the sky, but in this section, we’re talking
about rain.
What about if it’s just a little bit, you
can say it’s foggy.
It’s foggy.
When it’s foggy, you don’t need a rain jacket,
you don’t need an umbrella.
It’s just a little bit difficult to see outside.
It’s foggy or it’s hazy.
Hazy is pretty much the same thing as foggy.
There is a dense moisture in the air.
It’s not muggy because here it’s a little
bit closer to rain, but you still probably
will get a little bit moist, but it’s not
going to be rain.
Then we have misty.
It’s misty outside today.
This, in my opinion, is kind of the most annoying
rain because you don’t really need an umbrella,
but you’re still going to get wet.
It’s just misty.
Vanessa:
It kind of feels like your walking close to
a waterfall and the waterfall is kind of pushing
some moisture out at you.
You’re not getting soaked, but you’re still
getting wet.
This is kind of typical British weather, in
my opinion, misty, or you could say it’s drizzling.
Now here we’re getting a little bit more serious.
When it’s drizzling outside, you look outside
and say, “Oh, it’s drizzling.
I definitely need an umbrella.”
And you can’t really do an awful lot outside,
in my opinion, when it’s drizzling.
It’s not exploding out of the sky, it’s just
drizzling, but it’s stronger than mist.
You might hear in some formal situation someone
say, “Oh, they’re calling for a rain shower,
or I think there’s going to be a rain shower
today.”
I feel like this is a little bit too formal
for casual conversation.
Vanessa:
If my husband asked me, “Do you know what
the weather’s going to be like today?”
I wouldn’t say, “They’re calling for a rain
shower.”
You might say, “There’s going to be showers
in the afternoon.”
But to say a rain shower feels a little bit
formal, so I recommend using some of these
other expressions too.
What happens if it’s more than hazy, more
than misty, more than drizzling?
You could say it’s pouring.
You can imagine you have a cup of water and
you just pour it into another container.
There is a lot of water.
It’s pouring outside or you might use a noun
and say there’s a downpour.
There is a downpour.
These are both pretty strong.
There’s a lot of rain coming out of the sky.
Vanessa:
A common expression that you might hear is
simply it’s coming down or it’s really coming
down.
Or you could say it’s really coming down out
there.
If you look out the window and it’s just a
wall of water because there’s so much rain,
you might say, “Oh, it’s really coming down
out there.”
And that just means it’s raining a lot.
Here in the US and maybe where you’re from
too, people tend to have kind of negative
attitudes about rainy days like, ah, it’s
so rainy.
It’s not a positive or happy day.
It’s just a rainy day.
So we also have some kind of negative sentences
that you can use to talk about what it’s like
when it’s raining.
Vanessa:
You might say, “Oh, it’s just a wet day.
It’s just a wet day.
Everything outside is wet.
The moment I go outside, I’m wet, everything’s
wet.
It’s just a wet day.”
Or you could say, “It’s a nasty day to day.
It’s a gross day today.”
Maybe if you had plans to do something outside
and then you look outside and you can tell
that the rain isn’t going to stop anytime
soon.
It’s just pouring and it’s probably a little
bit cold.
It’s not a nice warm spring rain, it’s just
cold pouring rain.
That is the perfect time to say, “Oh, it’s
just nasty out there.
Oh, what gross weather today.”
Saying nasty and gross to describe the weather.
Sorry weather.
All right, let’s go to our special segment
with Dan where you’re going to see us describing
some pictures of rain.
All right.
Now we have four more pictures talking about
types of rain.
Dan:
wetness.
Vanessa:
Yes.
Type of liquid or something that’s in the
air.
What would you say about this first picture
that has this nice cliff?
Dan:
I would say it’s foggy.
It’s just a very foggy day.
There’s not good visibility out there.
Vanessa:
Not good visibility.
It’s foggy.
Yep.
I think people say that as well.
Dan:
People say low visibility as well.
Vanessa:
There’s low visibility, especially if you’re
giving a warning about driving, like, “Be
careful driving.
There’s low visibility because it’s really
foggy.”
What about the next picture, this couple with
the umbrella?
Dan:
Yeah.
It’s kind of hard to tell how hard it’s raining
in this picture, but it’s certainly raining.
It doesn’t look like a downpour.
I would say it might be drizzling perhaps.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
I think drizzling, maybe a light shower.
Dan:
Light shower, yes.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
They’re still walking.
They have an umbrella, but they’re not trying
to hide inside.
Dan:
Yeah, do you think they’re happy?
Vanessa:
Yeah.
They’re in nature, why not?
Dan:
They seem happy, they’re holding arms.
This is a beautiful afternoon.
Vanessa:
I think if that were us, I’d be pretty happy.
Dan:
Yeah, they’re definitely going to kiss soon,
I think.
That’s my feeling.
Vanessa:
Oh, I see.
What about the third picture?
The girl with the umbrella inside on this
kind of blue gloomy day.
Dan:
Yeah, it does look gloomy.
I would definitely say it’s raining.
It just looks generally raining, although
it might be pouring.
Vanessa:
I would say this is the perfect example of
a gross day.
It’s just gross outside.
It’s nasty.
You don’t want to go outside for more than
three seconds.
Just run to the next place that you have to
go to.
It’s not like the other picture, you’re not
going to take a nice walk with an umbrella.
No, it’s just full of those kind of bad feelings
that you get when you have a completely overcast
sky, it’s raining, there’s a lot of water
on the ground.
It’s a gross day.
Dan:
Yeah.
It looks like the kind of day where the rain
is just kind of continuing all day.
It’s not a shower because usually if you say
it’s a shower, it comes and goes.
I would say the rain shower is for an hour,
two hours, less, who knows?
Vanessa:
This is a continual rain all day.
It’s a gross day.
What about the last picture?
Dan:
Yeah, that looks like the strongest rain of
all of them.
I’d say this is a downpour or if you’re inside
and somebody asks you what’s what the weather
is like outside, you would say it’s pouring.
Vanessa:
Yep.
It’s pouring.
Someone has just poured their cup from the
sky down and it’s pouring, continuous rain.
Would you ever say it’s raining cats and dogs?
Have you ever said that in real life?
Dan:
I have said that but only as a joke, maybe
I was a kid.
Vanessa:
This is kind of like one of the first idioms
that English learners learn, I feel like native
speakers never or hardly ever use that to
describe whether like that.
Dan:
You might get a smile if you said it’s raining
cats and dogs outside.
People might, they might laugh a little bit.
Vanessa:
But that’s the only context when you’ll actually
hear people use that in real life, is just
as a little joke.
Well thanks for talking about these rain pictures
with me.
Dan:
You’re welcome.
Vanessa:
Did you hear some of those expressions that
we just talked about to do with the rain?
I hope so.
Let’s go to our next category, which is describing
types of cold.
There are two sentences that you can use to
talk about the changing of time, the changing
of temperature, especially between seasons.
You could say, “It’s getting cooler outside
or it’s getting colder outside.”
You usually use this maybe between summer
and fall, it’s getting cooler outside, but
you could even use this right before a rainstorm
in the summer.
Maybe it’s extremely hot and you’re excited
that it’s getting cooler outside.
Finally, it’s getting cooler outside.
And we’re using that verb, get, to talk about
some kind of action that’s happening.
It’s getting or becoming cooler.
But the verb get, is a little bit more natural
in this situation.
It’s getting colder.
It’s getting cooler.
Vanessa:
Especially now that we can almost predict
the weather using different apps and looking
at the weather on TV, you’ll probably going
to hear and you could say, “There’s a cold
front coming up next week.”
A cold front means just there’s going to be
a lot of cold weather coming in next week.
It could be because of some Arctic winds or
maybe it’s just something that’s happening
regionally, but that’s a common expression
you’ll hear.
There’s a cold front coming in.
Or if it is actually getting quite cold, you
might say, “Make sure you bundle up.”
This is a great phrasal verb that means wear
your hat, scarf, gloves, winter coat, winter
boots.
Make sure you bundle up.
Vanessa:
When it gets really cold, not fall weather,
but winter weather, you can say, “I can see
my breath.”
This is a great way to kind of judge the temperature.
When you go outside and you breathe out, if
you can see your breath, then it means it’s
pretty cold.
The air is cooler than your body temperature,
than the air coming out.
And then sometimes something that we say when
we’re talking about judging the weather, the
temperature, “Oh, I could see my breath in
the car or is the heat on in our house?
I can see my breath.”
That means it’s still a little bit cold.
And what’s a common precipitation when it’s
cold outside?
Snow.
So you might say, “It’s freezing.
Oh, it’s freezing.”
It just means it’s extremely cold.
Vanessa:
But what comes after freezing?
It’s snowing.
Usually, at least where I live in the South
of the US, the first snow is pretty exciting.
If you live in the North somewhere where snow
is extremely common, maybe the first snow
is exciting, but then two months later, if
you’ve had continuous snow for two months,
it’s not so exciting anymore.
But where I live, it’s not common to get snow,
maybe three times in the winter we’ll have
a couple of days with snow.
So it’s really exciting.
So whenever there’s snow, everyone shouts,
“It’s snowing, look outside, it’s snowing.”
When it’s not too cold outside, but it’s still
snowing, you might describe this by saying,
“There are just a few flurries.”
Flurries means occasional snowflakes.
It’s not pouring from the sky with snowflakes,
but instead there’s just a few flurries.
Vanessa:
Or when you look at the ground, you might
say, “Yeah, it’s snowing, but it’s not sticking.”
This means it’s not staying on the ground.
The ground is warmer than the snow, so it’s
just melting the moment that it hits the ground.
This is every child’s sad moments that, “Oh,
it’s snowing.
Oh, and then it’s not sticking.
I can’t go sledding.
I can’t make a snowman.
I can’t throw snowballs.”
Because it’s not sticking, I can just look
outside and see snow.
But some snow does stick and the way that
we can describe this type of snow, there’s
a lot of different words that you might see
online, but some of the most common ways is
just to say, “Wow, this is great snowball
snow.
Or you can pack the snowballs really easily
with this.”
So you might be talking about the texture
of the snow.
Vanessa:
When you pick up snow, sometimes it’s powdery.
So you might say the snow is powdery.
It just kind of falls apart like flour or
sugar in your hands.
But if it is good for making snowballs, you
could say, “Oh, I can pack it really well.
It’s great for making snowballs.”
After the snow melts a little bit, there is
a not so beautiful thing that happens and
on the roads and maybe on the sidewalks, maybe
in your yard, it is slushy or it’s icy.
Slushy means that it’s not hard ice, but it’s
kind of broken up ice, it’s wet ice and usually
if it’s on the road it’s kind of black or
gray because of all the cars.
It’s not beautiful, but it’s a common thing
that happens.
It’s slushy, it’s icy, watch out where you
walk because the sidewalk is pretty slushy
or the sidewalk is icy.
Whenever there’s a lot of ice outside, you’ll
definitely hear warnings about ice, such as
watch out for black ice on the road.
Vanessa:
What is black ice?
Well, because the road is made of asphalt,
which is a black color, sometimes the ice
melts and it becomes what they call black
ice and it’s not completely melted, it’s still
icy but you can’t see it, so it’s kind of
like invisible ice.
So basically this warning, watch out for black
ice, means just be careful while you’re driving
because you might not see all of the ice that’s
actually there.
Watch out for black ice.
Have you ever experienced icy conditions in
the summer?
I have and it is so weird, especially because
I live in the South.
This is called hail.
Vanessa:
Hail can happen at any time during the year
and it can even happen in this summer.
Hail is like a ball of ice falling from the
sky and if it’s small, it’s not so terrible,
but if it’s big, sometimes they describe this
as golf ball sized hail or baseball sized
hail or softball size hail.
I have never heard basketball sized hail,
maybe because that’s kind of impossible.
But if you have golf ball sized hail falling
from the sky and it’s hitting your car, it’s
hitting your plants, it’s hitting your roof,
that can be extremely damaging.
So at least whenever there’s a hail warning,
people usually try to put their cars under
cover or cover up their plants or do something
to protect their property because hail can
be pretty dangerous.
Vanessa:
And finally, before we get to the extra section
with my husband, Dan, you might say, “It’s
the dead of winter.”
It’s the dead of winter.
You can also use this for summer.
It’s the dead of summer, but I feel like it’s
more common about winter.
That means it’s maybe January or the end of
January, you feel like it’s the middle of
the winter.
It’s been the winter for so long.
You feel like it’s going to be winter for
so much longer in the future.
It’s the dead of winter.
I feel so sad, which is a common condition
that happens during the winter.
You’re not outside that much.
You don’t get as much sunshine, so you could
say, “It’s the dead of winter.”
Vanessa:
All right, let’s go to the extra section where
you’re going to see us describing some pictures
that have to do with snow and ice.
All right.
Now we have four more pictures of cold weather.
How would you describe this picture of a horse?
Dan:
Well, he looks kind of sad out there, doesn’t
he?
You can see his breath, so it’s probably pretty
cold.
It doesn’t look like it’s that humid out there,
although there’s a lot of snow on the ground
or some snow on the ground.
It could potentially even be freezing out
there.
If you walk outside and it’s so cold, then
you can just describe it as freezing.
Vanessa:
It’s freezing.
Yeah.
I think there’s kind of a light dusting of
snow on the ground, it’s not thick packed
with several feet of snow, but just the light
dusting of snow.
Probably not a terrible day, bundle up and
you’ll be fine.
What about the next picture, the city picture?
Dan:
Yeah.
This one looks maybe a little more risky if
you’re on the road driving, so I might describe
the ground as icy or potentially slushy.
It’s hard to tell exactly how hard the ice
is, but if it’s not solid ice, if it’s a little
bit wet than you call it slush.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Especially after it snowed for a while and
cars have driven on it or people have walked
on it, it gets kind of gross, kind of gray
snow, that’s not so pretty anymore.
Dan:
It looks like a pretty big snow though too.
So I might say the snow is deep or the ground
is covered.
Vanessa:
Yep.
Yep.
What about a picture of this guy throwing
a snowball?
Dan:
He looks like he’s having fun.
Actually, he doesn’t look like he’s having
fun, it’s like, you’re dead.
Vanessa:
I’m going to throw this snowballing and get
you.
Dan:
Well anyways, I mean obviously it’s snowy,
but the snow, you might say it’s powdery snow
and it can form a snowball really well.
Vanessa:
Easy to pack.
Dan:
Yeah.
Or the ground is covered.
Again, these are things I might say.
Vanessa:
I would say that he’s really bundled up.
He has a hat.
The hat is also covering his ears.
He’s got a coat and gloves, so he’s completely
bundled up.
He might even be able to pull a scarf over
his face or over his nose, to bundle up more,
but that’s a common expression that people
might use to tell you it’s really cold out
there.
Bundle up.
What about the picture with these poor sheep?
Dan:
They do look a little lonely and sad out there.
Vanessa:
They’ve got a lot of wool though.
Dan:
Maybe not lonely, but cold.
Vanessa:
Pretty cold.
Dan:
You would just say it’s snowing first of all,
but they’re pretty big snow flurries and it’s
kind of low visibility.
So you might say it’s snowing hard.
I think people say it’s snowing hard a lot
when it snows that much.
Vanessa:
It’s really coming down out there.
Dan:
Ooh, it’s really coming down.
Which you can also use for rain, I believe
too.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dan:
But yeah, I would say it’s not quite a blizzard.
So a blizzard, you couldn’t see a thing and
it would be probably nighttime and the wind
would be blowing all over the place.
Vanessa:
You probably would put your animals in some
kind of shelter, I hope.
Well, I’ve never had sheep, so maybe they’re
really hardy.
But in this situation I would also say that
it seems like the flurries are just sticking
to the ground.
It’s not thick with snow yet, but they’re
just sticking.
So we don’t know if they’re going to melt
when they touch the ground or if they’re going
to stick, but they seem to be just sticking.
It’s recently happened.
Great.
Thanks so much for talking about this.
Dan:
You’re welcome.
Vanessa:
I hope you caught some of those great cold
expressions.
Next we’re going to be talking about how to
talk about temperature specifically.
What about these two sentences?
How could you say these?
Well, you might say, “It’s 20 degrees.”
But what about that second one?
You could say, “It’s minus 20 degrees or it’s
negative 20 degrees or it’s 20 degrees below
zero.”
There are a lot of more various ways to talk
about negative temperatures than positive
temperatures, so you could simply say, “It’s
20 degrees.
Okay, that’s a beautiful day.
It’s 20 degrees.”
But if it is minus 20 degrees, you probably
need to bundle up.
You got to watch out for some black ice while
you’re driving.
It is negative 20 degrees.
It’s minus 20 degrees or it’s 20 degrees below
zero.
Vanessa:
If you want it to be a little bit more general
about the weather, you could say, “It’s above
freezing.”
Which could be like three degrees or it’s
below freezing, which is negative three degrees,
minus three degrees.
Or you could just say, “It’s below zero.”
And that means the temperature is negative.
Those three expressions are pretty common.
And of course I need to mention that in the
US we use Fahrenheit and in pretty much the
rest of the world you use Celsius.
So just be aware if you are listening to maybe
an American weather channel, they’re probably
going to tell the temperature in Fahrenheit.
Or if you’re watching a movie and they’re
talking about the temperature, if they’re
American, it’s most definitely going to be
in Fahrenheit.
Vanessa:
For me, I feel a little bit ashamed because
I’ve lived in a lot of other countries around
the world where they use Celsius, but I still
struggle with converting the two.
I know that 20 degrees Celsius is generally
a good temperature, 30 is really hot.
I know zero is freezing, but between that
I have difficulty converting because it’s
something that comes so natural for me to
use Fahrenheit.
So just be aware whoever you’re talking with
that you use the correct version.
Let’s go to the extra section where you’re
going to see Dan and I describing the temperature.
All right.
Here we have two pictures from our life.
Dan:
I know these people.
Vanessa:
Yeah, this is a year ago, I guess, a little
bit more than a year ago.
Dan:
Yeah a little over a year.
Vanessa:
When we built the snowman, there was a fun
snow that happened in our city and the other
picture’s a little bit more recent, when it
was just kind of a cold day.
So how would you describe specifically the
temperature of the first picture with the
snowman?
Dan:
Yeah, so it’s 28 degrees Fahrenheit, but it’s
minus two degrees Celsius.
And it’s interesting because in America we
don’t use Celsius.
Vanessa:
I wish we did.
Dan:
So we rarely say minus for a temperature.
So if it’s a minus temperature, you’re really
like, it’s minus five out there.
It’s so cold.
But in other countries it might just be like
it’s a little below freezing.
It’s minus two.
Vanessa:
Yeah, it’s not so bad, but if it’s actually
going to be minus in Fahrenheit, it is extremely
cold.
So it’s just the difference between Fahrenheit
and Celsius.
Dan:
Yeah.
And I would also say, you probably wouldn’t
say this unless somebody asked you what the
temperature is.
You wouldn’t come inside and be like, “It’s
28 degrees out there.”
You would probably be like, “It’s freezing
out there.”
If you’re talking casually, you’re just going
to say the general feeling, not necessarily
the specific temperature.
Vanessa:
Yeah, but often I like to look at my phone
and look at the weather app to see what the
temperature is.
So if I look at the temperature and I want
to tell Dan what that temperature specifically
is, then I could say, “Oh, it’s 40 degrees
or it says it’s 40 but it feels like 35 or
feels like 30.”
And that means, usually we call that the wind
chill because of the wind, it feels colder
than it actually is.
And that’s usually how it is around here,
it usually feels colder than it actually is.
What about that second picture with the log,
with our two year old son?
Dan:
Well as you can see, it’s above freezing out
there.
It’s 38 degrees Fahrenheit or three degrees
Celsius.
It’s not very comfortable unless you’re wearing
a nice big coat.
Vanessa:
Yep.
You’ve got a bundle up and he is the definition
of bundled up in this picture.
Well, we still had a good time, even though
it was around freezing, it was above freezing,
but it still felt pretty cold.
I remember on that day, even though it felt
like, even though it was 38 degrees, it still
felt like it was below freezing.
Dan:
With the wind chill and whatnot.
Vanessa:
Yeah, with the wind chill.
Great.
Well thanks so much for talking to me about
these weather pictures.
Dan:
You’re welcome.
Vanessa:
Did you hear some of those temperature expressions
with Dan?
I hope so.
Let’s go on to our final category, which are
four common questions that you will hear and
that you can also ask to talk about the weather.
What’s the weather like today?
What’s the temperature today?
How’s the weather?
What’s it like outside.
Those final two, I feel like those are generally
when you want some advice about how you should
dress.
Should I bring my umbrella?
Should I put on my snow boots?
How’s the weather?
What’s the weather like outside?
Okay, well I need some advice for what I should
wear.
These are common questions that you can ask
other people.
They will ask you and I hope that this lesson
prepared you with some great specific answers
that you can give.
Vanessa:
And now I have a question for you, in the
comments, let me know what’s the weather like
today in your city?
Let us know and make sure you look through
all of the comments because you’ll probably
see some of these expressions used.
It’s a great way to just refresh your memory
and remember all of the things that you learned.
Thanks so much for learning English with me
and I’ll see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
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Bye.