Weather

1.Describing weather that changes a lot: Temperamental/ Volatile/ Unpredictable

You can also use some idiomatic phrases:

“Our weather can’t make up its mind.”

“In our country, the weather has mood swings.”

“We can get four seasons in a day here”

Examples:

2. Describing Hot Weather: Scorching/ Boiling/ Roasting/ Super hot/ Bloody hot/ Fairly hot/ Pretty hot

You can either use ‘hot’ with an adverb, like ‘fairly‘ or ‘pretty‘, or the above can be used in cases where the weather is usually over 30 degrees.

Examples:

• I’d say it’s generally quite cool most of the year, but summers can be scorching.
• Normally it’s quite mild, but it’s going to be super hot this summer.
• Because we live close to the equator, our weather is roasting.
• It’s fairly hot here. We do get some relief in the winter when the rain comes in.
• Last summer was bloody hot but this year is meant to be much cooler.

3.Describing Cold Weather: Freezing/ Super cold/ Bloody cold/ Pretty Nippy/ Fairly Chilly

Some of these adjectives are used mostly with specific adverbs. For instance, we don’t say ‘it’s very nippy’ or ‘it’s super nippy’. We use softer adverbs like ‘fairly‘, ‘pretty‘ or ‘quite‘- “It’s pretty nippy in our country” or “It’s quite chilly in my region.” For ‘cold, you can use all the adverbs, but for ‘freezing‘, we don’t use these adverbs because it’s an ungradable adjective. Instead, we use ‘absolutely freezing’, or ‘bloody freezing’.

Examples:

• It’s always super cold here but it’s been even nippier these past few weeks.
• My city is pretty chilly because of the altitude.
• It’s freezing 4 months of the year.
• It’s normally not that bad but recently it’s been bloody freezing!

4. Describing Rainy Weather: Rainy/ Wet/ Lashing/ Pouring (down)/ Bucketing (down)/ Chucking it down/ Pelting down/ Belting down/ Teeming (down)/ Raining like mad/ Raining like crazy

In real life, we often say it’s pissing (down), but this is not appropriate for IELTS). We can say that we get caught in the rain if we are outside when it’s dry but then the rains comes and rains on us.

Remember, most of these are verbs. Don’t use them as adjectives. For instance, don’t say: “The weather in my country is very bucketing down.” I’d also try not to use them generally, like “It’s always bucketing down in my country.” Use it more in temporary periods. E.g. The weather is normally ok here, but it was bucketing down last week.”

Examples:

• I was at a party last week and of course it started pouring down just as we were walking to the venue!
• We were heading into the city centre but got caught in the rain a bit.
• It’s usually quite nice in the summer, but it’s been lashing down the past few days!
• It’s normally pretty wet here. And the past week it’s been raining like mad!
• I reckon the summer will be pretty rainy to be honest. It’s chucked it down the last 2 years!

5. Describing cloudy weather: Cloudy/ Clouded over/ Overcast

Examples:

• The weather in my country is usually pretty overcast.
• It’s been fairly cloudy this week, but I’m hoping for a bitta sun next week!
• It was quite clouded over last weekend, so we didn’t bother going to the beach.

6. Describing Humid weather: Muggy/ Sticky/ Humid

• I just got back from Florida this weekend.. It was unreal but a bit too muggy for my liking!
• I live near the Amazon, so it’s quite hot and sticky!
• I was travelling up the east coast of Australia, and it was super humid in Cairns.

7. Describing good weather: Unreal/ Class

These words change depending on the generation. For example, ‘lit‘ and ‘fire‘ were popularly used as ‘amazing‘. Just do some research into what’s the current language and what you feel comfortable with. Although some examiners may not know it!

Examples:

• The weather was class on the weekend but I think a storm is coming soon.
• I love the weather here. It’s unreal.

8. Describing bad weather: Grim/ Brutal/ Dreary/ Miserable/ Dismal

Be careful with the adverbs you use here. All of these except grim are ungradable adjectives, so use ‘absolutely‘ or ‘so‘ with them.

Examples:

• I did a day trip to Edinburgh last week. The city was class but the weather was brutal!
• The weather in my country is absolutely brutal! It’s always raining!
• I love the weather in my city, but it’s been so dismal these past few weeks!
• It’s been quite dreary recently, but tomorrow is forecast to be good.
• The winters are so miserable because it’s usually dark, cold and wet.