Talk about the Weather in English: Advanced Vocabulary for Weather

Hey, I am Annemarie with Speak Confident English. In a recent lesson,

I shared advanced level vocabulary to help you describe the temperature

where you live. For example,

biting cold or scorching hot temperatures. But what about the weather?

In general, depending on where you live,

you might have a handful of expressions and words you can use

to describe weather. That includes sun, wind, clouds, rain,

and snow. I want you to have the same level of vocabulary,

the same word choices in English.

That's why I've created this particular Confident English lesson where you'll

find 23 new words, including nouns, adjectives,

and verbs to help you describe the weather where you live or where you're

traveling precisely.

But first, if you don't already know, I am Annemarie,

an English confidence and fluency coach.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English. So while you're here,

make sure you subscribe to my Speak Confident English Channel so you never miss

one of these Confident English lessons.

Let's get started right away with a handful of vocabulary we can use to

describe sunny weather.

We can describe weather with a lot of sun as being bright,

clear or harsh. Two of those are quite positive,

and the third is negative. Let's start with the word bright.

If you describe the weather or the sun as being particularly bright,

you're indicating that the sun is shining and there's an intense

light outside. For example, the sun's brighter than usual. Today,

I definitely need to wear my sunglasses.

Have you ever walked outside and the light from the sun was so intense that you

had to squint your eyes?

That perfectly summarizes bright sunny weather.

It also indicates that it's clear outside.

If you describe the weather as being clear,

it means that it's free from darkness,

obscurity or cloudiness, for example.

It's a lovely clear day. Let's go for a walk. Now,

at times that bright sunlight can be so strong that it

becomes somewhat negative, it becomes harsh.

If you describe the sunny weather as being harsh,

it means that it's unpleasant or difficult to be in. It's too strong.

For example,

the curtains can block out the harsh sunlight in the summer months.

Just like when talking about the sun,

we can also describe the wind in a variety of terms that are both positive and

negative. For example,

we might use the word breeze or breezy to describe

a pleasant gentle wind.

It's just enough to keep you cool On a hot day, for example,

the gentle breeze by the ocean was cool and refreshing. Now,

if that wind gets a bit stronger where it's a bit unpleasant to be outside,

particularly if you're trying to read a book and you can't keep the page of your

book open, you might describe it as blustery or gusty.

This describes wind that is strong,

maybe even violent or wind that comes in in sudden bursts.

For example,

the blustery wind made it difficult to walk home or the

blustery wind made it difficult to read my book while sitting outside,

and then of course,

we can go one step further or actually a giant leap forward

with gale force winds.

This is used to describe extremely strong winds,

often blowing at 45 to 90 kilometers an hour.

For example,

the weather forecast predicts gale force winds of up to 80

kilometers an hour tomorrow. I don't think it'll be a good day for the beach.

Our third category for vocabulary used to describe weather is focused on clouds.

Here we could use the words overcast, gloomy, or dark.

Let's start with overcast.

If you look outside and you describe the weather as being overcast,

it means that the sky is covered by or obscured by clouds,

and in an example sentence, you might say it was an overcast morning,

so I wasn't too concerned with getting a sunburn while we were out walking

around. Now,

if those clouds are a bit dark and it seems that it might rain,

you would probably describe the weather as being gloomy.

Gloomy indicates particularly thick and maybe even dark cloud

cover indicating that there might be some rain as well. For example,

the weather is gloomy Today,

it's the perfect day to stay inside and just read books.

If we describe a sky that is overcast, so there's cloud cover,

but it's still quite light,

and then transition to gloomy from there, we can go to dark,

dark weather or a dark sky.

This is used when it's still daytime,

but the clouds are so thick and so low that there's very little light

coming through. In this kind of weather,

everything seems gray and it also indicates that there

may be some significant rain or thunderstorms coming as well.

For example,

the skies got quite dark just before the thunderstorm began.

Before we go onto category four with vocabulary to describe rainy

weather, let's do a pop quiz.

Which word do you think best completes this sentence?

I don't really feel like going outside today. It looks so outside.

What do you think?

What kind of weather would convince you to just stay inside all day reading

books and watching your favorite shows on Netflix?

A great choice here would be the word gloomy.

I don't really feel like going outside today. It looks so gloomy.

And now let's talk about rain.

Here we have five words that help us talk about different kinds

of rain, drizzle, downpour, torrential rain,

flood, and the opposite of all of this is drought.

This describes weather without rain for a particularly long

period of time, but before we go more in depth on that,

let's start with a focus on the word drizzle.

Drizzle is used to describe a very gentle,

very fine rain, very small raindrops. In fact,

you could even stand outside for a few minutes and not get entirely wet.

Of course, it would be better to have an umbrella,

but you don't really need one sometimes, but not always.

Drizzle might be a sign of more rain to come. For example,

you might say to someone, it's starting to drizzle,

let's get home before it really starts to rain. Now,

if it does really start to rain,

so much so that you can't really see in front of you, and this can be dangerous.

If for example, you're driving a car,

then we would describe that rain as a downpour.

A downpour is heavy continuous rain,

and for example, if you watch a weather forecast,

you might hear this week we're expecting strong winds and a

downpour of rain. Now,

if a downpour is particularly strong and it goes on

for a long period of time, we could describe it as torrential rain.

For example, this year the torrential rains ruined the farmer's crops,

and of course, ongoing torrential rains could lead to floods.

A flood is an overflow of water. In other words,

there's too much of it and the ground cannot soak up all of the

water. For example, in many parts of India,

floods are common occurrence. Now, at the beginning of this category,

I mentioned the word drought, which is the opposite of all of this.

If you are experiencing a drought or if you're describing drought

like weather,

it indicates that there has not been enough rain or perhaps there

hasn't been any rain in a particularly long period of time,

and as a result there are some negative effects or negative consequences.

For example, a decade after a historic drought in California,

heavy rains were causing super blooms.

I don't know if you've heard that word in the news recently.

A super bloom is a phenomenon in California when the seeds of

wild flowers have stayed dormant for a long period of time due to drought,

and then with an unusual rainy season,

they all bloom at once,

which is just a stunning display of wild

flowers and an abundant amount of color. If you haven't seen photos of it,

I recommend taking time to look online at photos of this year's super

bloom in California.

And now our last category has quite a significant number

of words to describe snow or snowy weather.

Here we have cold snap, bleak slush,

black ice, freezing rain, sleet, hail, blizzard,

and whiteout. Let's start at the very beginning with cold snap.

A cold snap describes a sudden brief occurrence of

cold weather. It isn't necessarily associated with snow,

but it does describe weather that is quite frigid.

For example, in 2019,

an intense cold snap led to burst pipes in

many homes.

The second word for describing particularly cold weather that may be accompanied

with snow is bleak. If you describe the weather as bleak,

it indicates that it's very cold,

unwelcoming and wind swept. In other words, there are very strong winds.

For example,

the bleak weather in Iceland made me second guess my travel plans.

Next on our list is the word slush or slushy.

Slush is the word we use to describe snow or ice that is

beginning to melt due to warmer temperatures. It's not water,

but it's not snow. It's that in-between phase,

and we might use it in a sentence such as the streets in my neighborhood are

covered with dirty gray slush. Now,

slush describes old snow and ice that is beginning to melt.

In contrast to that black ice describes new ice that is

formed on the surfaces of water or perhaps on the surface of a street or

sidewalk, and it's so new that it's transparent.

You don't really see that it's there,

which means that it's also quite dangerous. For example,

if someone has an accident while driving,

they might say the car hit a patch of black ice and

slid off the road, and the next two words on our list are what cause black ice.

We can have freezing rain and sleet.

Freezing rain describes raindrops that after falling to the ground,

freeze on the surface and create a layer of ice.

For example,

I slipped and fell going down the stairs this morning because of last night's

freezing rain. The next word is very similar,

but there is a bit of a distinction. Sleet.

This describes what begins as rain and then turns into

snowflakes and eventually into tiny little drops of ice before

hitting the ground. In fact,

if it's windy outside while there's sleet,

you'll feel these sharp little ice pellets hitting your skin and you

might use it in a sentence such as the snow turned to sleet,

which made driving quite difficult.

The next word on our list is the word hail,

and this could also be used in the context of thunderstorms or

particularly strong rain.

Hail is precipitation that has turned into small balls of ice.

Sometimes they can be quite small like a pellet.

Sometimes they can be quite large and described as golf ball sized hail,

and of course balls of ice hitting a car or a roof can

cause significant damage. For example,

the weather forecast indicates that there may be hail,

so I moved my car into the garage.

The last two words on our list definitely describe some of the experiences I had

growing up during the winter months. The first is blizzard.

A blizzard is a severe snowstorm with very strong

gusty winds. For example,

the blizzard swept through most of the east coast. Now,

if a blizzard is particularly strong,

you might describe it as creating white out conditions.

This indicates that everything is covered in snow,

making it very difficult to see.

You can't see shadows and you don't really see color or very much depth.

You can only see particularly dark objects.

Otherwise, everything just looks white. It's covered in snow.

For example, on the way home,

we got caught in the whiteout and we couldn't see anything.

It took us hours to get home. In a moment,

I have a couple of questions to help you practice the vocabulary from today,

but before I get there, I have a quick pop quiz for you.

I want you to choose the best possible word to complete this sentence.

We were stuck in the for hours.

We couldn't even see people walking toward us.

If you guessed the word white out,

that is definitely the best choice for this sentence,

and now here are two questions to help you practice the vocabulary you learn

today. First, I want you to describe the weather where you live today.

What words would you use to describe the sun, the wind, the clouds,

the rain or snow? As always,

you can share your examples with me in the comment section below.

The second question I have for you is how would you describe the most

extreme weather that you typically experience where you live?

Do you experience torrential downpours and flooding?

Do you experience drought or do you consistently experience

blizzards and white out conditions during the winter months? Again,

I want you to use some of the vocabulary from today's lesson to describe

extreme weather that you've experienced, where you live. With that,

thank you so much for joining me today.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to watch this lesson and subscribe to

my Speak Confident English Channel.

I look forward to seeing you in my next Confident English lesson.