Talking about the weather in the UK

Someone once said that if it wasn’t for the weather, the English would have nothing to talk about.

Frank McKinney Hubbard claimed: “Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of 10 people couldn’t start a conversation”.

This supports Oscar Wilde’s statement  that “conversation about the weather is the last refugee of the unimaginative”. 

Yet, many conversations begin with: “What do you think of the weather?” or “Nice weather we’re having, isn’t it?”. It’s hardly surprising in the country like the UK, where the weather is changeable, to say the least. In the morning you may look out of the window to find the sun shining. It’s fine weather.“Turned out nice again, hasn’t it?” you say, with fingers crossed.

By the afternoon it’s raining cats and dogs. “Lovely weather!”, you will be saying. “Yes, lovely weather for ducks!”. And because the weather in Britain is so changeable, people often promise to do things, “come rain or shine” (=however the weather turns out).

Do you know how to talk about the weather in English?

Do you know what it means: "It’s chucking it down today” or “It’s baking today”?

Well, it may be difficult to figure out their meanings without knowledge in that particular area. But don't worry! In today’s post, I'm going to teach you words, phrases and idioms that may be useful to describe different kinds of weather.

British people are famous for talking about the weather. Do you know why? It’s because in the UK people have a lot of weather. You never know what the weather will be like. You can have all four seasons in one day.

So, how does a typical British day look like? Well, one thing is for sure: the weather is going to be very changeable.

The weather can change quickly and unpredictably. It can be sunny, and then, 30 minutes later, it will start snowing. 

Now, let's imagine your typical British day!

First, you wake up and it's a bit cold. How would you describe this? You could say that it’s a bit chilly. This means that it’s a little cold. Not very cold, just a little cold. Autumn mornings are often chilly. In chilly weather you might want a light jacket, but you won’t need a heavy coat or a scarf, or anything like that.

But what if it’s very cold? You could say that it’s freezing. You might say that it's so freezing that you can see your breath. It means that you can literally see the air when you breathe on it. If the weather is so freezing that you can see your breath, you will probably need to bundle up. Bundle up means to wear layers of clothes to keep yourself warm. And, obviously, on freezing mornings it can be very, very difficult to get out of bed.

But let’s imagine that we get up because we have to go to work. So we leave the house, and it’s drizzling at the moment.  Drizzling means that it’s raining lightly. It’s not heavy. Drizzling is so light that it can look like mist. We can also say that it is only spitting. Spitting is even lighter than drizzling. It means that a few raindrops are falling, but it isn’t really raining. Before it rains, it might start spitting and then get heavier.

Then, suddenly, the heavens open. This means that it starts raining heavily.

How else could we describe it if it is raining a lot?

We could say that it’s chucking it down. It means that it is raining heavily. It is the type of rain that people find it difficult to drive in or walk in.

As you are walking to work, your clothes are getting soaked. This means that your clothes are very wet because of the rain.

Therefore, always remember about an umbrella in the UK! Then you get to work only a little damp from the rain. Damp means that something is slightly wet.

From your window you cane see that it is very overcast and dark overhead. To say that it is overcast means that the clouds are covering the sky. You cannot see the sun. When it is dark overhead, you are saying that the clouds are very black. Most likely because it is raining or going to rain soon.

If it is overcast and dark overhead, you may think that there is going to be a storm. You could say that there is a storm brewing. This means that you think a storm will start very soon. You’re sure there is going to be a storm, you can see it in the sky.

And then you see lightning. Lighting is a large electric flash of light. And after a lightning you hear a thunder. Thunder is the noise that you hear caused by lightning. We call these storms thunderstorms. So you can say that thunderstorms are storms that have lightning, thunder and it is also chucking it down.

When the storm starts, the wind picks up. Soon, it’s almost a gale. The wind picks up when it becomes stronger. A gale is a very strong wind which can be dangerous.

Luckily for you, when it’s time to go home, the storm has finished. It is now sunny and hot. You won’t need your umbrella anymore. You walk outside and there isn’t a cloud in the sky and it’s baking hot. This means that it is very hot. For example, it’s baking hot in the Sahara Desert.

When you say: “It’s completely still”, you mean there is no wind at all. You can also say that “It’s a scorcher today”. This also means that it is extremely hot. In Australia, for example, most days in the summer could be described as scorchers.

Another way to say that it’s hot is “It’s boiling.” So if the temperature is very hot we can say that it is baking hot, a scorcher or boiling. Now, the walk home from work is a lot better than your walk to work this morning in the rain. So you get home and watch the weather forecast. The weather forecast is the prediction for the next day or week of what the weather will be like.

The weather forecast tells you that tomorrow it will begin with a bit of frost on the ground and it will be sleeting. In the afternoon, there will be a flurry of snow, but then it will turn into a blizzard by the evening. The snow on the floor will turn into slush. It will be below freezing for most of the day. What does this mean?

It will begin with a bit of frost on the ground – frost are ice crystals on a frozen surface. When it is freezing, the ground may be covered in frost. Usually, in winter in the UK, there are very frosty mornings.

And it will be sleeting – sleet is rain and snow mixed together. Sleet happens when snow melts as it falls.

In the afternoon, there will be a flurry of snow – this means that there will be light snow for a short time. It won’t be heavy, and it usually doesn’t stay on the ground.

But it would turn into a blizzard by the evening – a blizzard is a storm with lots of snow and wind. Usually planes can’t take off or land when there is a heavy blizzard.

The snow on the floor will turn into slush – slush is snow or ice that has partly melted. Usually snow will turn into slush when the weather gets warmer. Walking in slush is very unpleasant, because cold weather will get into your shoes!

It will be below freezing for most of the day – when we are saying that it is below freezing, we are saying that the temperature is below 0°C. This means that it is freezing.

Since in England people love to describe the weather and comment on how the current temperature makes them feel, here are some useful weather-phrases that they often use. I've put them into 4 categories:

COLD: 

It’s freezing.

It’s bracing (=makes you feel awake and healthy).

It’s nippy (=slightly cold).

It’s chilly.

It’s parky (=cold, chilly).

HOT:

It’s boiling.

It’s scorching.

It’s roasting.

It’s sweltering.

It’s baking.

It’s blistering.

RAINY:

It’s raining cats and dogs.

It’s chucking it down.

It’s hammering it down.

It’s pouring it down.

It’s pissing down. (be careful with this one :-P)

On rare occasions, the weather in the UK is JUST RIGHT:

Then you can say: “It’s very pleasant/mild/lovely/nice/warm.”

I hope you are now able to describe all the possible types of the British weather....

.....though, this one...

...will be the most frequent one ;-P

But don't get depressed! Sunny days will come soon ;-) 

Thank you for reading!