The weather in Spanish

You might think that because there is only one type of weather in the UK (rain), you will only need
to learn how to say “it rains” in Spanish. You are wrong! In the countries where Spanish is spoken,
there are many types of weather.

What’s the weather like? - ¿Qué tiempo hace?

In Spanish, we use three different verbs to speak about the weather: estar, haber y hacer. You have
to learn the collocations by heart, but have a look at the notes at the end of this page! Here are the
most common expressions:

Hacer

Hace frío
Hace sol / It’s sunny Hace Está
viento It’s cold nublado
Hace buen tiempo
It’s windy Está nevando It’s cloudy
It’s nice weather
It’s snowing

Haber

Estar
Hay niebla
Hay tormenta Está
It’s foggy lloviendo
It’s stormy
It’s raining

Here are all the grammatically correct expressions:

English Estar (está) Haber (hay)* Hacer (hace)@

It’s snowing Está nevando Hay nieve / there is snow*
It’s raining Está lloviendo Hay lluvia / there is rain*
It’s sunny Está soleado Hay sol Hace sol
It’s cloudy Está nublado Hay nubes / there are clouds*
It’s windy Hay viento / there is wind* Hace viento
It’s cold/hot Hace frío/calor
It’s foggy Está neblinoso Hay niebla / there is fog*
It’s nice/bad weather Hace buen/mal tiempo
*”Hay nieve” literally means “there is rain”. This is a literal translation. In English is not very common to say
“there is wind” or “there are clouds”. However, this is very common in Spanish.
@”hace sol” literally means “it does sun”. “hace viento” is literally translated into “it does wind”. This does
not make any sense in English, but in Spanish the verb hacer (to do/to make) is used to speak about the
weather.