There is one topic that people can always talk about–the weather. If you are learning Spanish you may want to prepare yourself for a casual weather conversation. You can get ready to ask and answer questions about how the weather is currently, or what the forecast–el pronóstico–says it will be. You may want to be able to excuse yourself from certain events on account of the weather. Perhaps you would like to know more about places where the weather is characteristically to your liking; that is, places that have a certain climate.
Our purpose here is to provide you with some useful terms and phrases you can put to use in conversational situations about the weather.
As a start, lets learn some expressions with the main weather verb: hacer ‘to make or do.’
It's cold. - It's cold. Is hot. - It's hot. It's sunny. - It's sunny. Is cool. - It's cool. Windy. - It's windy. Nice weather. - It is good weather. It's bad weather. - It is bad weather.
Llover is the word for the verb ‘to rain’, and nevar means ‘to snow’. As in English these verbs are used impersonally.
Llueve. — It rains. Nieva. — It snows. Truena. (tronar) — It thunders. Va a llover. — It's going to rain. Va a nevar. — It's going to snow.
Some weather conditions can go with hay, an impersonal verb form related to haber ‘to be or exist.’
There are clouds. - There are clouds. No sun. - There is sun. There drizzle. - There is drizzle. There is fog. - There is fog. There haze. - There is low fog. No breeze. - There is a breeze, light wind. There lightning. - There is lightning.
An ongoing condition may be communicated using the verb estar ‘to be (in a condition).’
Está nublado. — It is cloudy. Está lloviendo. — It is raining. Está nevando. — It is snowing.
Note that a verb you will not find in weather expressions is ser ‘to be.’ It is worth pointing that out as English weather expressions are formed around ‘is.’
In the next Spanish ‘how to’ lesson–, we’ll see how some of the weather expressions work in conversational exchange.