Spanish Weather Vocabulary: The Ultimate Icebreaker

Introduction

• Weather as a common topic for small talk in Spanish.
• Discussing weather is useful for breaking the ice in various situations like elevators or stores.

Categories of Weather Expressions

1. Times when the weather "does"

• Use the verb hacer (to do/make) to describe what the weather "does".
  • Hace calor (\text{(It is hot)})
  • Hace frío (\text{(It is cold)})
  • Hace fresco (\text{(It is cool)})
  • Hace buen tiempo (\text{(The weather is nice)})
  • Hace mal tiempo (\text{(The weather is bad)})

2. Times when the weather "is"

• Use the verb estar to talk about non-permanent weather states.
  • Está nublado (\text{(It is cloudy)})
  • Está soleado (\text{(It is sunny)})
  • Está despejado (\text{(It is clear)})
  • Está ventoso (\text{(It is windy)})
  • Está tormentoso (\text{(It is stormy)})
  • Está lloviendo (\text{(It is raining)})
  • Está nevando (\text{(It is snowing)})

3. Times when "there is" some weather

• Use the verb form hay to indicate that "there is" a specific weather condition.
  • Hay viento (\text{(It's windy - literally "there is wind")})
  • Hay niebla (\text{(It is foggy - literally "there is fog")})

Summary of Usage

• Hace is used for general feelings of weather like warm, cold, or windy.
• Hay and está are more specific.
• Best to remember weather expressions as phrases to avoid confusion.

Exciting Spanish Weather Expressions

• Llueve a cántaros! (\text{(It's raining buckets!)})
• Llueve a mares! (\text{(It's raining oceans!)})
• Siempre que llovió, paró (\text{(Whenever it rained, it stopped)})
• Hace un frío que pela! (\text{(It's so cold it burns your skin!)})
• Me estoy congelando! (\text{(I'm freezing!)})
• Ay, qué calor! (\text{(What heat!)})
• Es un horno! (\text{(It's an oven!)})