Weather Expressions in Spanish

In Spanish, we use two specific constructions when talking about the weather:

1. Expressions with “hace,” which is the impersonal form of verb “hacer”

Here are the most common ones:

Español	Literal Translation	Meaning
Hace calor	“It makes heat”	It’s hot
Hace frío	“It makes cold”	It’s cold
Hace buen tiempo	“It makes good weather”	It’s nice outside/the weather is nice
Hace mal tiempo	“It makes bad weather”	The weather is bad
Hace sol	“It makes sun”	It’s sunny
Hace viento	“It makes wind”	It’s windy

2. Expressions using the progressive present (to be + [verb]-ing). Like in English, we use this construction for rain and snow:

Note: when we are not talking about the current moment, we can use verbs “llover” (to rain) and “nevar” (to snow) in the present tense:

Here are a few examples using both the present progressive and the present tense:

Español	Inglés
Está lloviendo ahora mismo en Londres.	It’s raining right now in London.
Está nevando hoy en Alaska.	It’s snowing today in Alaska.
Normalmente llueve mucho en Londres.	It usually rains a lot in London.
En invierno siempre nieva mucho en Alaska.	In the winter, it always snows a lot in Alaska.

Can you see the difference?

Practice: Explain the weather in NYC in Spanish