No matter with whom you are talking, somehow you end up mentioning the weather. It is a major part of our lives and it influences our decisions and our feelings. This is why you want to learn some useful words and phrases to describe the weather in Spanish.  They will most definitely boost your talking game too.

Weather can be expressed by using 3 different verbs: hacer, estar, and haber. We will take a look at all these situations in order for you not to have to always think about what verb you have to use each time.

Let’s take a look at the weather phrases that are formed using the verb hacer:

• Hace calor (= it is hot)
• Hace frío (= it is cold)
• Hace fresco (= it is cool)

You can also talk about the weather using these two phrases formed with the verb hacer:

• Hace buen tiempo (= the weather is nice)
• Hace mal tiempo (= the weather is bad)

Now, let’s take a look at the weather expressions that use the verb estar. As you know from my post about the verbs ser, estar, haber, the verb estar is used to talk about states that are not permanent, and the weather is a great example of something that is constantly changing.

• Está nublado (= it is cloudy)
• Esta soleado (= it is sunny)
• Está despejado (= it is clear)
• Está ventoso (= it is windy)
• Está lloviendo (= it is raining)
• Está nevando (= it is snowing)

Now, let’s take a look at the weather expressions that use the verb haber, more specifically the form hay, which means, that there is some kind of weather phenomenon.

• Hay viento (= there is wind)
• Hay niebla (= there is fog)

Let’s take a look at the differences between the three verbs used to describe the weather. Is there a specific rule?

Well, for example hace is normally used to describe the general feeling of the weather, like it is hot, cold, windy. On the other side, hay and está are usually more specific.

A great tip for you would be to stop worrying about which verb to use in each situation and just learn these expressions by heart.

There are also some expressions that are used in Spanish to express the weather. Let’s take a look at some of them.

First, how do you say that it is raining really hard? Well, you have two expressions:

• ¡ Llueve a cántaros! (= it is raining buckets)
• ¡ Llueve a mares! (= it is raining oceans)

When someone is having a hard time, you can cheer them up by telling them this phrase:

• Siempre que llovió, paró ( = whenever it rained, it stopped).

Just remember, it is important to learn these phrases because you always need small talk as it is an essential part of our lives.