Weather and Seasons
How to talk about the weather in English — the vocabulary, the impersonal it, and why this is the safest conversation topic there is.
The weather is the most-used small-talk topic in English, and it comes with a grammar quirk you need from day one.
The impersonal "it"
English requires a subject in every sentence, so weather sentences use it — even though it refers to nothing.
It's raining. · It's cold today. · It was sunny yesterday.
❌ Is raining. / ❌ Rains. ✅ It's raining.
This catches speakers of languages that drop the subject.
The core words
Adjectives (with "it's"): sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy, snowy, foggy, hot, warm, cool, cold, freezing, wet, dry
Verbs (with "it's + -ing"): raining, snowing, pouring (raining hard)
It's windy and cold.
It's pouring — take an umbrella.
Nouns: rain, snow, wind, sun, cloud, storm, fog, ice
Saying how much
Most weather words come in a range, and picking the right strength is what makes you sound like a local rather than a textbook.
| Weak | Medium | Strong |
|---|---|---|
| drizzle | rain | downpour, pouring |
| breeze | wind | gale |
| chilly, cool | cold | freezing |
| mild, warm | hot | boiling |
| damp | wet | soaked |
A shower is short rain that stops again; drizzle is fine, light and continuous. In Britain both are more common than actual heavy rain, and both have their own verbs: it's drizzling.
Also useful: humid (hot and damp, uncomfortable), muggy (the same, informal), sleet (rain and snow together), hail (ice pellets), thunder and lightning, a heatwave, black ice.
Temperature
- It's 20 degrees.
- It's below zero.
- It's boiling. (very hot, informal)
- It's freezing. (very cold — used loosely, not literally 0°C)
Britain uses Celsius; the US uses Fahrenheit. It's eighty degrees means a warm summer day in America and would be lethal anywhere using Celsius.
Talking about the forecast
- It's going to rain later. (I can see the clouds)
- They said it'll clear up this afternoon.
- There's a chance of showers tomorrow.
- It's supposed to snow at the weekend. (very common, means "the forecast says")
The seasons
spring · summer · autumn (US: fall) · winter
Climate is the long-term pattern behind them — a separate topic, and a common one in exams.
Prepositions: in spring, in the summer, in July, on Monday.
Asking and answering
- What's the weather like? — It's lovely. / Not great.
- What's it like outside?
- Is it still raining? — No, it's stopped.
"What's the weather like?" is the fixed question. Not How is the weather?, which sounds translated.
Why it matters socially
A comment on the weather is the standard way to open a conversation with a stranger in English. It is not really about the weather — it is a signal that you are willing to talk.
Cold today, isn't it? — Freezing!
Answering with just "yes" ends the exchange. Add a word.
The reply is the whole point. A weather remark is an offer, and the expected response is agreement plus one extra thing — a word, a complaint, a plan. Freezing! And it's supposed to snow tomorrow. That second half is what turns a greeting into a conversation.
Two minutes at a bus stop
A: Miserable, isn't it?
B: Awful. It's been drizzling since seven.
A: They said it'd clear up by lunchtime.
B: They always say that. I didn't even bring a coat.
Nobody exchanges information about the weather here. They are establishing that they are both reasonable people waiting for the same bus.
Test yourself
The quiz below checks the impersonal it and the fixed question.