Introduction

● What is the weather like today?

● What was the weather like yesterday?

● What will the weather be like tomorrow?

These three questions are the most common among people round the world, don’t you think so? Speaking about weather we mean blue skies, puffy white clouds, torrential rains with hail force winds, flashes of lightning; or snow gently falling on the ground. But if we open an English dictionary we find out that “the weather is the state of the atmosphere at any given time everywhere on Earth; it varies from place to place, day to day, season to season”. The long-term look at the weather in a place or region, the averaging of rainfall, the maximum and minimum temperatures is called climate.

3.1. The list of common weather words is very long and we start with some nouns and adjectives. Check your understanding.

noun	adjective		noun	adjective
sun	sunny		wind	windy
rain	rainy		ice	icy
cloud	cloudy		mist	misty
fog	foggy		snow	snowy
heat	hot		humidity	humid
warmth	warm		frost	frosty

And now you can use a dictionary.

► Hot weather

close / stifling – hot and uncomfortable, you can hardly breathe

boiling / scorching – very hot (e.g. boiling day)

warm – pleasantly hot

mild – gentle (winter) weather, when it is not very cold

humid – the air is hot and wet

drought – a long period of time without rain

► Cold weather

cool – pleasantly cold

chilly – a little cold

freezing – extremely cold

sleet – a mixture of snow and rain

frost – a coat of ice

blizzard – a storm with a bit of snow and strong winds

slush – dirty half-snow, half-water (in the streets)

snowdrift – a deep bank of snow

► Wet weather

to drizzle – to rain a bit with very, very small drops of rain

to pour – to rain a lot

shower – brief fall of rain

torrential rain – heavy rain

light rain – little rain

the Monsoon – a rainy season

hail / hailstone – pellets of frozen rain falling from the sky

overcast – very cloudy and dark

thick fog – dense fog

mist – light fog

damp – not dry; slightly wet

flood – overflow of water on a place usually dry; great outpouring

► Windy weather

strong wind – powerful wind

breeze – gentle pleasant wind

gale – very strong wind

thunderstorm – a storm with thunder and lightning

hurricane – a typhoon

► Look at these three ways of talking about the weather.

With a verb	With a noun	With an adjective
It often rains.	There is often rain.	It is often rainy weather.

● Put the words into the correct column:

sunny / sun / hot / snows / snow / snowy / wind / windy / cold / cool / cloud / cloudy / warm / foggy / fog / humid / wet / drizzle / flood / floods / storm

3.2. Match each word with a word from the box.

stones drift storm warning rain wave pour

thunder torrential down heat hail snow gale

3.3. Complete the scales which get stronger from left to right.

1. …….. → wind → …….. → …….. → hurricane

2. boiling → …….. → warm →…….. → …….. → cold → ……..

3. damp → …….. → pour down → …….. →……..→ the ……..

3.4. True (T) or false (F)? If a sentence is false, write a true sentence.

1. It often pours with rain in the desert.

2. It gets quite chilly in the desert in the evening.

3. Thunder makes a noise.

4. Lightning can kill people.

5. Drought is a long period of rain.

6. A spell of hot weather may end in a thunderstorm.

7. If it is humid, the air will be very dry.

8. Below zero, water turns to ice.

9. Heavy rain means that it is pouring with rain.

10. When it’s foggy you need sunglasses.

11. A shower is a gentle breeze.

12. In the Tropics there is usually torrential rain most days.

13. In the Far North freezing weather often continues till September.

14. In the Tropics there is usually torrential rain most days, and the roads often get flooded.

3.5. Fill in the correct word from activity 3.1.

1. A …….. is over 100 km per hour and can be dangerous.

2. A period of very hot weather often ends with …….. .

3. Rain for a short period of time is a …….. .

4. When it is hot, you still get a lovely …….. off the sea.

5. We had really thick …….. this morning.

6. –2°C (two degrees below zero Celsius/Centigrade or minus two degrees) is very …….. and freezing for Brazilians.

7. +35°C (thirty five degrees above zero Celsius/Centigrade or plus thirty five degrees) is …….. for England and very unusual.

8. The first …….. arrive and the roads become icy.

9. …….. were battering the roof of our car.

10. I think it’s going to rain, the sky is …….. .

11. We had a …….. last summer, it did not rain for six weeks.

12. Smog is a mixture of …….. and pollution.

3.6. Read these sentences (1-10) and then use the words in bold to complete the sentences below (a-j).

1. Have you heard the weather forecast for tomorrow? They say it’s going to be hot and humid.

2. “It’s pouring with rain” means that it’s raining heavily.

3. A drought is a shortage of water. Usually because it hasn’t rained for a long time.

4. A blizzard is a severe snowstorm.

5. In a thunderstorm, you see lightning and you hear thunder.

6. A Mediterranean climate is generally hot in the summer and mild in the winter.

7. The sky was overcast, it wasn’t very bright and all you could see was cloud.

8. Temperature is measured in degrees.

9. When there’s a gale, the wind is blowing very strongly.

10. 120° Fahrenheit is equivalent to about 49° Centigrade/Celsius.

a) It must have been at least 45 …….. in the shade.

b) The world’s …….. was very different when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

c) Maybe we should postpone the match; the …….. is really bad for tomorrow.

d) Do you remember the …….. of 1997? We were snowed in for days.

e) There’s no reason to be afraid of the ……..; as long as you stay indoors there’s no danger of being struck by lightning.

f) It was blowing a …….. when I cycled home last night; it was hard to stop the bike from getting blown over.

g) The South West can expect a top temperature this afternoon of 38 degrees …….. .

h) “Don’t go out yet. It’s ……… . You’ll get soaked.”

i) …….. and famine are not the most serious problems facing East Africa; war and corruption are.

j) Even though it was the middle of summer, it was so …….. every day that we didn’t get a chance to sunbathe once.

Note: Celsius – a scale of temperature in which water freezes at 0° and boils at 100°. Fahrenheit – a scale of temperature in which water freezes at 32° and boils at 212°.

3.7. Choose the correct word.

1. Before we set off, we listened to the climate / weather forecast.

2. Paul saw a flash of lightning / thunder and then heard a lightning / thunder clap.

3. The traffic had to slow down because of the thick fog / vapour.

4. There won’t be much rain. It’s only a short shower / stream.

5. Spring is my favourite season / term of the year.

6. Last summer was very hot, and there was a real heatwave / temperature.

7. Look at those clouds! There’s going to be a blast / storm.

8. On a hot day in summer, I look forward to the chilly / cool evening.

9. We were caught in the rain and damp / soaked to the skin.

10. In the morning there was half a metre of ice / snow blocking the road.

3.8. Choose the correct answer.

1. There’s been a …….. in Germany and a village was completely destroyed.

a) flood b) drizzle c) shower d) smog

2. Dinosaurs have been …….. for millions of years.

a) endangered b) extinct c) threatened d) disappeared

3. It’s sunny, but there’s a very cold …….. so don’t forget your coat.

a) blowing b) air c) wind d) gas

4. If you ask me, …….. waste is a much bigger problem than ordinary household waste.

a) industrial b) business c) working d) employer

5. As towns grow, they tend to destroy the surrounding …….. areas.

a) urban b) commercial c) land d) rural

6. Jill put her Wellington boots on and, as soon as it stopped raining, went out to play in the …….. .

a) reservoirs b) lakes c) puddles d) ponds

7. The weather was …….., I was wearing two pairs of gloves and my fingers were still cold.

a) foggy b) freezing c) damp d) boiling

8. Let’s go outside and enjoy the …….. while it lasts.

a) breeze b) blizzard c) sunshine d) neighbourhood

3.9. Fill in the gaps with the word from the box:

conditions / spells / seasons / climate / degrees / temperature / forecast

On the whole, the 1) …….. in Britain is fairly mild. Although there are four 2) …….. – summer, autumn, winter and spring – many people say there are only two: cold and not-so-cold! The 3) …….. today is around five 4) …….. Centigrade, although the weather 5) …….. has promised sunny 6) …….. . I can’t wait! I suppose the weather 7) …….. aren’t bad for the time of year.

3.10. Fill in the correct word derived from the word in bold.