Hello, English learners. Welcome back to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco. And I'm Erica. And today we are going to be talking about the weather.
That's right. And you know, Marco, this is a really, really useful and important topic in English, isn't it?
Exactly, because if you ever travel abroad, you always want to know about the weather, right?
That's right. And Anglo people, English people...
All they ever do is talk about the weather.
Well it's an important topic. You want to know what clothes to wear or if you should take an umbrella.
Or even when you're making small talk with people.
Exactly. So we are going to be taking a look at the weather in the United States.
But before we get started with the dialogue, let's take a look at vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary preview. Okay, so we have two words we're going to hear in the dialogue.
Now the first one is forecast. Forecast.
Weather forecast. Forecast. So this is what we listen to or what we see on the television, the weather forecast.
Right, it's like the prediction of the weather.
Okay, so forecast, can I only use it in the weather?
No, of course you can use it in many other different situations, like in business, for example, forecast sales.
Okay, so the prediction of sales. Very good.
And we have one more word on Vocabulary Preview, a shower.
A shower. Shower. Shower. So when it rains for a short time and it's not too heavy, that's a shower.
Okay, very good. So it's very similar to a shower at home.
Right. Like a little bit of water. And it doesn't last too long.
Okay, very good. So why don't we listen to our dialogue now?
We are going to be listening to the weatherman as he describes the weather in Utah.
And now let's go to Kenny Williams for today's weather forecast.
Thank you, Bill. And good morning, Salt Lake City.
What's the weather looking like today, Kenny?
Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag in Utah today.
We've got heavy cloud cover here in northern Utah, and we're calling for scattered showers throughout the day. with a daytime high of 45 degrees.
Now if we move down to the south of the state, we can see that a cold front is moving in.
We can expect clear skies, but it will be quite cold with temperatures hovering around the 30 degree mark.
It's a chilly day, folks, so don't forget your coats.
What about tomorrow, Kenny? Do you have good news for us?
Well, it'll be a rainy day for northern Utah.
We can expect some isolated downpours in the morning.
Winds will be coming in from the northeast with gusts reaching 23 miles per hour.
Salt Lake City can expect the rain to turn to sleet in the evening.
Things are looking a bit better for the south.
We'll see cloudy skies with a chance of showers.
Later in the day, we can expect partly cloudy skies with a forecast high of 38 degrees.
You heard it, folks. It's going to be a cold one.
That's right, Bill. We'll have more later on today on the 6 o'clock news.
That's the weather forecast for this morning.
All right, so we listened to the weather forecast, and it doesn't seem like nice weather in Utah, huh?
No, it certainly doesn't. I don't think that I'd really like to live there.
Well, maybe it's winter or something like that.
Well, I guess, yeah, maybe it's good for skiing.
Okay, so now I think it's time for us to take a look at some of those.
Maybe... difficult words that we may have listened to in this dialogue in Language Takeaway.
Alright, here we're going to look at some words and phrases that you can use to describe the weather.
Now, the first one, we heard in the weather forecast that they were calling for scattered showers scattered showers scatter scattered if something is scattered It's sort of like it's a little bit of that thing everywhere.
Okay. And we already talked about what showers were.
Right. Okay, very good. To better understand when something is scattered, imagine that we are in a playground. and the children are playing in the playground.
So the children are scattered everywhere.
Some of them are playing on the swing, some of them are playing on the grass or in the sandbox.
So children, a little bit of children in every different spot.
So if we think that the city is a playground...
Maybe in one part of the city there's a little bit of rain, but not in the other part.
Exactly. That's a scattered shower. Very good.
Moving on to our second word, we have hovering hovering temperatures hovering around the 30 degree mark the temperature is hovering around Okay, so when I say that temperatures are hovering, You mean it's approximately.
Okay, so they can move up and down. So maybe it'll be a little bit warmer than 30 degrees or a little bit colder.
Yes. So if you think of hovering as floating.
Okay, very good. So why don't we listen to some more examples of how we could use hovering in different situations.
Example 1. Example 2. The waitress kept hovering around us all night.
It was really annoying. Example 3 The company's margin this year is hovering around the 40% mark.
Okay, so pretty clear. Hovering is sort of floating around one area.
Very good. Now let's move on to the next part.
We saw that we're going to have isolated downpours, isolated downpours, isolated downpours.
Okay, let's break this one down. Let's start with downpour.
A downpour is when you have a lot of rain, very strong rain.
That's right. For maybe a short amount of time, it's really raining heavily.
Right. So that's what a downpour is. And if we take a look at the first word, isolated.
So in one small area. Okay, confined it to a specific area.
That's right. OK, so we have an isolated downpour.
It'll be raining in one specific area. And you hear this a lot with weather language.
You hear isolated showers, isolated snowstorms exactly so it'll be in a specific area only All right, so along with these showers and rain, we also talked about wind and we heard that we will have gusts reaching 23 miles per hour.
So we're going to have gusts reaching 23 miles per hour.
Gusts of wind. Okay, so can you explain to our listeners what gusts are? are okay so a gust is a sudden increase in the amount of wind okay so Maybe we'll have normal wind and all of a sudden it will get really windy.
That's right, for a short amount of time.
Okay, that's a gust. G-U-S-T, gust. And for our final word on Language Takeaway today, we're going to have sleet.
Sleet? Sleet. All right, sleet is a terrible kind of weather.
It's sort of a mixture between snow and rain.
So sleet is kind of this strange mix between ice and rain and snow.
So just imagine it's not completely ice, so it's not solid.
Mm-hmm. But it's not water, right? It's not rain.
And it's not snow either. No, it's in the middle.
Okay. All right, so sleet. But what you really need to know is that it's terrible.
All right, so that's all the words we have today for language takeaway.
Let's move on now to Fluency Builder. All right, in Fluency Builder today, we're gonna look at three phrases that are really common when you're talking about the weather.
Now, we heard in the dialogue that there was a cold front moving in.
A cold front moving in. A cold front is moving in.
Okay, so a cold front. Imagine a wall of cold air.
Mm-hmm. and it comes towards a place and then it changes the pressure in the atmosphere.
A very sudden amount of cold air that comes into a place.
So we say a cold front is moving in. So we always think of these cold fronts or warm fronts as moving.
So you can either say they're moving in or you can say a cold front is coming in.
Okay, very good. And okay, we have a cold front that's moving in, and we're going to have winds that will be coming in from the northeast.
Okay, when's coming in from? Okay, when's coming in from.
So when I say it's coming in from... You're talking about its origin, where it starts.
Okay. So if I change the noun and I say, and I don't say wins anymore, but maybe I'll say my friends.
My friends are coming in from. Chicago.
So they are arriving from Chicago. Exactly.
What else can I say? Or you can also say the kids are coming in from outside.
Okay, so where they were before. Very good.
So coming in from, you can change the noun a little bit and you can form these new sentences.
Great. Now our final phrase we heard the announcer say, it's going to be a cold one.
It's going to be a cold one. It's going to be a cold one.
So I have this phrase, it's going to be a cold one.
What do I mean by a cold one? Okay, so the 1 represents the event, so the day.
Okay, so it's going to be a cold day. Yes.
Okay. Now we can obviously change the adjective, right?
So it's going to be a hot one. It's going to be a long one.
It's going to be a long day. All right. But the one can mean anything.
Okay, so it could be a day, it can be an event.
A meeting. Okay. A project. So, for example, if we're going to a meeting, I might say, Hey, Marco, this is going to be a hard one.
Okay, so the one represents the meeting.
That's right. This is going to be a hard meeting.
Alright, I think this is a very good phrase and it's very commonly used, so why don't we listen to some more examples of how we can use It's going to be a something one.
Example one. Temperatures have forecasted to hit 37 degrees today.
It's going to be a hot one, folks. Example 2
It's only 8am and I've got 100 emails already.
It's going to be a long one today. Example 3
I haven't studied at all for the exam. It's gonna be a tough one.
Okay, so some great examples, and I think it's time for us to listen to this dialogue again.
And now we can understand all these words and phrases that we've just talked about.
And now let's go to Kenny Williams for today's weather forecast.
Thank you, Bill. And good morning, Salt Lake City.
What's the weather looking like today, Kenny?
Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag in Utah today.
We've got heavy cloud cover here in northern Utah, and we're calling for scattered showers throughout the day. with a daytime high of 45 degrees.
Now if we move down to the south of the state, we can see that a cold front is moving in.
We can expect clear skies, but it will be quite cold with temperatures hovering around the 30 degree mark.
It's a chilly day, folks, so don't forget your coats.
What about tomorrow, Kenny? Do you have good news for us?
Well, it'll be a rainy day for northern Utah.
We can expect some isolated downpours in the morning.
Winds will be coming in from the northeast with gusts reaching 23 miles per hour.
Salt Lake City can expect the rain to turn to sleet in the evening.
Things are looking a bit better for the south.
We'll see cloudy skies with a chance of showers.
Later in the day, we can expect partly cloudy skies with a forecast high of 38 degrees.
You heard it, folks. It's going to be a cold one.
That's right, Bill. We'll have more later on today on the 6 o'clock news.
That's the weather forecast for this morning.
Okay, so we know that in English-speaking countries, the weather is always, always, always a great subject of conversation for small talk, right?
Exactly. If you ever want to talk to somebody or start a conversation, the weather is always the number one topic.
Yep, and we actually have a phrase in this dialogue that would be great for starting a conversation.
For example, imagine if you lived here in Utah and you were wanting to start a conversation with someone.
You could say... It sure is a cold one today, isn't it?
Exactly. That's a great way of starting a conversation.
And English-speaking people love to talk about the weather, as you say.
That's right. So, guys, if you have any questions about weather vocabulary or if you want to practice talking about the weather, come to our website at EnglishPod.com.
Right. Erica and I are always there to answer any questions or doubts you may have.
And also, if you have any stories about crazy weather, maybe in the countries you're from, let us know.
So thanks for downloading, you guys, and until next time, goodbye.
