88 Spanish Weather Vocabulary Words and Expressions You Need to Know

Over the past two years of my time abroad in Spain, there have been countless moments when bringing up the weather has saved me from otherwise uncomfortable silences with Spaniards.

Luckily, the weather in Madrid is sporadic enough (and extreme enough) to always be a relevant topic when I find myself grasping at straws to make small talk.

In this blog post, you’ll learn 88 weather expressions in Spanish so you can say more than just “it’s hot” and “it’s cold.”

Contents

• How to Ask About the Weather in Spanish
• Spanish Weather Words
• Spanish Weather Expressions with Hacer
• Spanish Weather Expressions with Haber
• Spanish Weather Expressions with Estar
• Other Spanish Weather Expressions
• Using El Tiempo vs. El Clima to Talk About Weather in Spanish

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

How to Ask About the Weather in Spanish

Like English, there are multiple ways to ask about the weather in Spanish. Here are a few you’ll hear and use all the time:

• ¿Cómo está el clima?
• ¿Cómo está el tiempo?
• ¿Qué tal el clima?
• ¿Qué tiempo hace?
• ¿Cómo es afuera? (Lit. How is it outside?)
• ¿Cómo está por fuera?

Spanish Weather Words

Spanish Weather Expressions with Hacer

Spanish Weather Expressions with Haber

Spanish Weather Expressions with Estar

Other Spanish Weather Expressions

May 40^th is a silly way of saying June 9^th.

This extremely madrileño (from Madrid) phrase refers to the fact that Madrid weather can be a bit fickle so you shouldn’t assume there will be no rain or cold just because the summer weather seems to have arrived.

Sayo is an old-fashioned Spanish word meaning “smock” or “tunic” but would refer to a sweater in modern times.

Using El Tiempo vs. El Clima to Talk About Weather in Spanish

In Spanish, the word tiempo is extremely versatile. Depending on the context, it can be used to mean any one of the following:

• Time
• Weather
• A moment
• An era
• A half (in a sports event entretiempo or medio tiempo is “half-time”)
• Cycle (think wash cycle for clothing)
• Tempo or movement (music)
• Tense (grammar)

Note that the Spanish word clima is preceded by the masculine article el despite its feminine a ending. Many words break the gender rule like this in Spanish and must be memorized.

In English, “climate” isn’t used to talk about current weather conditions. But in Spanish, el clima can be used interchangeably with el tiempo in small talk.

However, it’s also used to talk about climate like in English.

Thanks to all these Spanish weather expressions, you’ll finally have a linguistic umbrella to bring to every Spanish conversation.

You’ll be prepared, rain or shine!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)