Weather in Spanish: hace calor, está nublado, hay niebla, and the forecast
In Spanish you talk about the weather with three verbs. You say hace calor for heat, está nublado for cloud and hay niebla for fog, and choosing the right verb is most of the job. Below, also: temperatures, the forecast and the local words for a downpour.
The weather words
| English | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| the weather | el tiempo or el clima | See below |
| It’s hot | Hace calor. | |
| It’s cold | Hace frío. | |
| It’s cool, chilly | Hace fresco. | |
| It’s sunny | Hace sol. or Está soleado. | Hay sol is also common in Latin America |
| It’s windy | Hace viento. or Hay viento. | |
| The weather is nice | Hace buen tiempo. | |
| The weather is bad | Hace mal tiempo. | |
| It’s cloudy | Está nublado. | |
| It’s clear | Está despejado. | |
| It’s raining | Está lloviendo. or Llueve. | |
| It’s snowing | Está nevando. or Nieva. | |
| It’s drizzling | Está lloviznando. | |
| It’s hailing | Está granizando. | |
| It’s foggy | Hay niebla. | Hay neblina is common in Latin America |
| There’s a storm | Hay tormenta. | |
| It’s humid | Hay humedad. or Está húmedo. | |
| It’s thundering | Está tronando. or Truena. | |
| lightning | el relámpago, el rayo | Rayo is the bolt that strikes |
| thunder | el trueno | |
| rain | la lluvia | |
| snow | la nieve | |
| cloud | la nube | |
| wind | el viento | |
| heat | el calor | Masculine |
| cold | el frío | |
| a heatwave | una ola de calor | |
| a cold snap | una ola de frío | |
| a downpour | un aguacero or un chaparrón | See the regional table |
| a hurricane | un huracán | |
| frost | la helada |
What trips learners up
Hace, está or hay. Use hace with nouns for temperature and general conditions: hace calor, hace frío, hace sol, hace viento, hace buen tiempo. Use está with adjectives and the -ando form: está nublado, está despejado, está lloviendo. Use hay with things you could point at: hay niebla, hay nubes, hay tormenta.
Hace mucho calor, not hace muy calor. Calor and frío are nouns after hace, so you use mucho with them: hace mucho frío, hace un poco de calor. Muy goes with adjectives: está muy nublado.
Hace frío, tengo frío, está frío. Hace frío is the weather. Tengo frío is you, I am cold. Está frío is a thing: el café está frío. Estoy caliente about yourself sounds sexual in most countries. Say tengo calor.
Llover and nevar are used in the third person only. Llueve, llovió, va a llover. Nieva, nevó. There is no person doing the raining.
El tiempo or el clima. In Spain, el tiempo is today’s weather and el clima is the climate of a place. In Latin America, el clima is also used for the weather today: ¿cómo está el clima? The forecast is el pronóstico del tiempo or el pronóstico everywhere.
Temperatures
In all four countries people use Celsius.
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| What’s the temperature? | ¿Qué temperatura hace? | Or ¿a cuántos grados estamos? |
| It’s 30 degrees | Hace treinta grados. or Estamos a treinta grados. | |
| It’s minus five | Hace cinco grados bajo cero. or Estamos a cinco bajo cero. | |
| the high / the low | la máxima / la mínima | On forecasts |
| feels like | la sensación térmica | Heard often in Argentina |
| It’s boiling | Hace un calor tremendo. | Everywhere |
| It’s freezing | Hace un frío que pela. | Spain, colloquial |
Regional differences
| Mexico | Spain | Colombia | Argentina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How’s the weather? | ¿Cómo está el clima? | ¿Qué tiempo hace? | ¿Cómo está el clima? | ¿Cómo está el tiempo? or ¿Cómo está el día? |
| A downpour | un aguacero or un chubasco | un chaparrón or un chubasco | un aguacero | un chaparrón |
| Drizzle | una llovizna | una llovizna or el calabobos | una llovizna or una lloviznita | la garúa or una llovizna |
| Muggy | Está bochornoso. | Hace bochorno. | Está bochornoso. | Está pesado. |
| Umbrella | el paraguas or la sombrilla | el paraguas | el paraguas or la sombrilla | el paraguas |
| Raincoat | el impermeable | el chubasquero or el impermeable | el impermeable | el piloto or el impermeable |
| Jacket | la chamarra | la chaqueta or la cazadora | la chaqueta | la campera |
| Jumper | el suéter | el jersey | el saco or el suéter | el buzo or el pulóver |
Sombrilla in Mexico and Colombia is an umbrella for rain or sun. In Spain it is only the beach parasol.
El saco in Colombia is a jumper. In Argentina and Mexico saco is a suit jacket.
Garúa is the fine, persistent drizzle of the Río de la Plata. El calabobos, “the fool-soaker”, is the word in Spain for drizzle so light you do not notice you are getting wet.
Seasons by hemisphere and altitude
Spain has four seasons that match the UK, with much hotter summers. July and August in the south and centre regularly pass 35 degrees, and many people leave the cities in August. The north, including Galicia and the Basque Country, is greener and wetter.
Mexico is in the northern hemisphere, but much of the country has two seasons that matter more than the four in the calendar. La temporada de lluvias runs from about June to October, with afternoon storms and clear mornings. The rest of the year is dry. Mexico City is at about 2,240 metres, so nights are cool all year. The hurricane seasons on both coasts run from late May or June to November.
Colombia is near the equator, and the temperature depends on the altitude. People speak of tierra caliente, hot lowlands like Cartagena, and tierra fría, highlands like Bogotá, where it is cool all year. The calendar seasons do not apply. Colombians say invierno for the rainy periods and verano for the dry ones.
Argentina is in the southern hemisphere, so el verano is December to February and el invierno June to August. Buenos Aires summers are hot and humid. Patagonia and the Andes get snow in winter, and the ski season runs from about June to September.
Talking about the forecast
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| What’s the forecast for tomorrow? | ¿Cuál es el pronóstico para mañana? | |
| It’s going to rain | Va a llover. | |
| It looks like rain | Parece que va a llover. | |
| There’s a chance of rain | Hay probabilidad de lluvia. | The forecast gives it as a percentage |
| It’s going to clear up | Va a despejar. | |
| It’s clouding over | Se está nublando. | |
| It stopped raining | Ya paró de llover. or Ya dejó de llover. | |
| There’s a storm warning | Hay alerta por tormentas. | |
| Take an umbrella | Llévate el paraguas. | Llevate el paraguas in Argentina (vos) |
What you will hear on the television or the radio: cielos despejados, clear skies; nubosidad variable, variable cloud; chubascos aislados, scattered showers; temperaturas en ascenso, rising temperatures; vientos fuertes, strong winds.
Small talk about the weather
Weather is safe small talk everywhere, and in a lift, a queue or a taxi you will hear ¡qué calor! or ¡qué frío hace! A short answer such as ¡uf, sí! is enough.
In Buenos Aires in summer you will hear lo que mata es la humedad, it’s the humidity that kills you, and the line is now a local cliché.
The words in real sentences
- Hoy hace mucho calor, no salgas sin agua. It’s very hot today, don’t go out without water.
- ¿Qué tiempo hace en Madrid en noviembre? What’s the weather like in Madrid in November? (Spain)
- Está nublado, pero no creo que llueva. It’s cloudy, but I don’t think it’ll rain.
- Hay mucha niebla en la carretera. There’s a lot of fog on the road.
- Tengo frío, ¿me prestas tu chaqueta? I’m cold, can I borrow your jacket?
- Cayó un aguacero y nos mojamos todos. There was a downpour and we all got soaked. (Mexico, Colombia)
- Estamos a treinta y cinco grados a la sombra. It’s thirty-five degrees in the shade.
- Mañana va a hacer buen tiempo. The weather will be nice tomorrow.
- En Bogotá hace fresco todo el año. It’s cool in Bogotá all year round. (Colombia)
- Llevá la campera, que a la noche refresca. Take your jacket, it gets cool at night. (Argentina)
Questions people ask
How do you say “it’s hot” in Spanish? Hace calor. For yourself, say tengo calor. Estoy caliente means something else.
Why is it “hace frío” and not “es frío”? In Spanish, heat and cold are nouns the weather “makes”. Hace is fixed, and frío is the noun.
How do you say “it’s raining” in Spanish? Está lloviendo for right now, or llueve for rain in general. Llueve mucho en abril is it rains a lot in April.
What is the difference between niebla and neblina? Niebla is fog and neblina is a lighter mist. In much of Latin America neblina is the everyday word for both.
Is it el clima or el tiempo? Both mean weather in Latin America. In Spain el tiempo is the weather today and el clima the climate.
What is the weather like in Argentina in December? Summer. Buenos Aires is hot and humid, often above thirty degrees, and Patagonia is mild.
Does Colombia have seasons? Not the four calendar ones. The temperature depends on altitude, and the year is divided into rainy and dry periods, which Colombians call invierno and verano.
Practise these words
tiempo, clima, calor, frío, sol, viento, lluvia, llover, nieve, nube, niebla, tormenta, grado. Vozelu is a free website for practising Spanish, and it has each of these. You see a sentence with one word missing, you type the word, and a native voice reads the sentence back. Practise the words on this page.