In this article you will find the most common Spanish weather vocabulary to talk about the weather and climate.
Weather is something we all talk about. Most of the times, it is even a conversation starter. For example, haven’t you ever started a conversation saying something like?: What a nice day! or it is colder today. The same happens in Spanish.
Also, knowing more vocabulary will always help with your speaking skills.
For these reasons, I put together the most common Spanish weather vocabulary including nouns, verbs and expressions. Below, you will find a few tables with the vocabulary and their English translations. Audios are included.
CONTENTS
Spanish Weather Vocabulary
When you want to talk about weather in Spanish, the verbs commonly used are: haber, hacer and estar. The last is used to indicate non-permanence. As all we know, weather is not famous for its stability and thus, it is considered a non-permanent state. However, several specific verbs also exists to describe the weather, such as nevar (to snow) or llover (to rain).
HOW TO ASK ABOUT THE WEATHER
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Qué tiempo hace? | What’s the weather like? |
| ¿Cómo está el tiempo? | How’s the weather? |
| ¿Qué día hace? | How’s the weather? What's the weather like? |
NOUNS
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| El bochorno | Sweltering |
| El calor | Hot |
| El chaparrón El chubasco | Downpour |
| El frío | Cold |
| El granizo | Hail or hailstones |
| La granizada | Hailstorm |
| La humedad | Humidity |
| La lluvia | Rain |
| La llovizna | Drizzle |
| La niebla | Fog |
| La nieve | Snow |
| Las nubes | Clouds |
| La nevada | Snowfall |
| El sol | Sun |
| La tormenta | Storm |
| El trueno | Thunder |
| El viento | Wind |
| La ventisca La tormenta de nieve | Blizzard |
| El rayo El relámpago | Lightning (flash) |
VERBS
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Granizar | To hail |
| Llover | To rain |
| Lloviznar | To drizzle |
| Nevar | To snow |
| Relampaguear | To flash lightning |
| Tronar | To thunder |
WHAT´S THE WEATHER LIKE?
You can spend a lot of time trying to figuring out what type of verb you need to use to answer this question. From my point of view, the best is to just remember the whole sentences.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Hace bochorno Hay bochorno | It is sweltering |
| Hace buen tiempo | The weather is nice/good |
| Hace calor | It is hot |
| Hace fresco | It is cool |
| Graniza Hay granizo Está granizando | It is hailing |
| Hace humedad Hay humedad | It is humid |
| Llueve Está lloviendo | It is raining |
| Llovizna Está lloviznando | It is drizzling |
| Está lluvioso | It is rainy |
| Hace mal tiempo | The weather is bad |
| Hay niebla Está nebuloso | It is foggy |
| Hay neblina | It is misty |
| Nieva Está nevando | It is snowing |
| Hay nubes Está nublado | It is cloudy |
| Relampaguea Hay relámpagos | It is lightning |
| Hace sol Está soleado | It is sunny |
| Hay una tormenta de nieve Hay una ventisca Hace ventisca | There is a blizzard |
| Hay tormenta | There is a storm |
| Truena Hay truenos Está tronando | There are thunders It is thundering |
| Hace viento Hay viento Está ventoso | It is windy |
| Hay un vendaval | There is strong wind |
OTHER SENTENCES
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Hace un buen día | It is a nice/good day |
| Hace un día estupendo/maravilloso | It is a wonderful day |
| Hace un día horroroso | It is a terrible day |
| Hace un día soleado | It is a sunny day |
| Hace un mal día | It is a bad day |
EXPRESSIONS
A lot of colloquial expressions and idioms exist in Spanish for any topic, weather is no different.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¡Cómo pega el Lorenzo! | "How hits Lorenzo!" Lorenzo, which is the sun, is shining hard and thus, it is very hot! |
| Hace rasca | It is very cold |
| Hace un calor infernal | It is diabolically hot |
| Hace un calor que te achicharras | It is as hot that you burn |
| Hace un día de perros | It is a very bad day "It is a day of dogs" |
| Hace un frío del carajo | It is very cold "It is dam cold" |
| Hace un frío que pela | It is very cold "It's so cold it burns your skin" |
| Hace un frío que cala | It is very cold "It is as cold it seeps through" |
| Hace un sol de justicia | It is super sunny "It is a sun of justice" |
| Llueve a cántaros | It is raining cats and dogs |
| Llueve a mares | It is raining cats and dogs "It is raining seas" |
| ¡Me aso de calor! | It is simply very hot! "I am roasting because of the heat!" |
| Me estoy asando | I am roasting |
| Me muero de calor | I am dying of heat |
| Me muero de frío | I am dying of cold |
| ¡Qué calor! ¡Vaya calor! | How hot! It is really hot! It is so hot! |
| ¡Qué chaparrón! ¡Vaya chaparrón! | What a downpour! |
| ¡Qué frío! ¡Vaya frío! | How cold! It is really cold It is so cold! |
| Ser un friolero | To be cold-blooded |
Spanish Climate Vocabulary
Climate is the conditions of the atmosphere over a long period of time. From this definition, we can consider that it is something that usually happens or an event in a permanent state. For this reason, we use the verb ser to describe the climate, since ser indicates permanence.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Es cálido | It is warm |
| Es caluroso | It is hot |
| Es fresco | It is cool |
| Es frío | It is cold |
| Es húmedo | It is humid |
| Es seco | It is dry |
| Es lluvioso | It is rainy |
Final Thoughts
I hope this post helps you learn and practice the Spanish weather vocabulary.
I recommend you to practice with the examples here and try to make up some others on your own.
If you want, I can help you practice with this vocabulary by using it while having a conversation during our online Spanish conversation classes.
Additionally, we can practice in the comment section below by answering the following questions:
- ¿Qué tiempo hace en tu ciudad?
- ¿Va a llover?
- ¿Normalmente hace mucho frío en invierno en tu país?
Hola and hi, I am Inés and I am the author of all the posts in the ConvoSpanish blog. My goal is to offer free content for people to practice their Spanish. Creating and maintaining the blog takes a lot of my free time however, due to my love of sharing Spanish with you, I will keep adding and updating the content in the blog. If you like the content of this post and believe that it helps you, please consider donating. I need coffee to keep me going while creating the posts. Aren´t they worth at least a cup of coffee? 😛 Any amount is appreciated. Donations will be used to support the free blog.
