Let’s talk about: The weather!
To celebrate Spring finally arriving in England today, I’ve created a list of all the different types of weather I can think of, and some useful weather vocabulary for each one…if you can think of any that I have forgotten, add them to the comments section!
THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS….
bright: (adjective) when the sun is shining and you need to think about wearing your sunglasses.
sunny: (adjective) when the sun is shining and there are no clouds, you definitely need your sunglasses!
clear: (adjective) no clouds are in the sky.
fine: (adjective) no rain today, not too hot, a spring day in England.
partially cloudy: (adjective) when you can see blue sky and also clouds.
cloudy: (adjective) lots of clouds in the sky.
overcast: (adjective) very grey, lots of clouds, no chance of sunshine or blue sky. London.
gloomy: (adjective) lots of dark clouds and not very bright; depressing.
Sometimes the cloud comes down to the ground level and it becomes difficult for us to see, in this case we use these words:
fog (noun)/ foggy (adjective): thick cloud, can’t see far more than a few metres.
mist (noun) / misty (adjective): light fog, can see far, looks beautiful on hills and mountains.
haze (noun) / hazy (adjective): lighter than mist, usually caused by heat.
RAIN TYPES:
drizzle: (verb/noun) when it rains very lightly with very small drops.
shower: (noun) a short period of quite heavy rain.
downpour: (noun) a longer period of quite heavy rain.
pour: (verb) used when talking about heavy rain.
it’s raining cats and dogs: (Idiom) When it is pouring outside.
torrential rain: (noun) very, very heavy rain! Can be used to describe monsoon rains.
WINTERY WORDS:
hail: (noun/verb) when frozen rain falls as small balls of ice. (also sometimes called hailstones (noun))
snow: (noun/verb) frozen rain that falls as white snowflakes.
snowflake: (noun) an individual piece of snow.
sleet: (noun/verb) snow or hail mixed with rain and usually wind – not nice!
blizzard: (noun) a very heavy snowstorm.
WIND TYPES:
breeze: a gentle wind, lovely on a hot day!
blustery: strong winds that start and stop over a period of time.
windy: strong continuous winds.
gale: very strong winds.
hurricane/cyclone/typhoon: very strong winds, heavy rain – don’t go outside in one of these!
Thanks for reading, I’m off out to enjoy the warm sunshine – we have to make the most of it in England!
**If you’d like to ask about weather vocabulary (or anything else!), click here to book a FREE Trial lesson on Skype with Michael or one of our other qualified British teachers!**
