۱۰۰ اصطلاح در مورد آب و هوا

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 picturesDan:

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.