it outside.
But do you know how to actually talk about winter weather like a native speaker?
Well, after today, you will.
Hello, English learners.
Welcome back to the Learn English podcast, the podcast that teaches English in context, so you can learn naturally.
On today's episode, I want to focus on vocabulary and specifically winter vocabulary.
I want to talk about the words and phrases that you will hear when people are discussing winter.
So if you're interested in learning these phrases well, of course, practicing your listening comprehension then follow along, because we're about to begin.
Before we get started, I want to remind you to look at the description of this podcast episode.
There you will find a list of the words and phrases that I used, so you can take them, study them and build your English vocabulary.
Now let's talk about these winter vocabulary terms.
I'm going to start off with some things that are related to cold weather, because winter time usually means that the temperature has gotten colder, that the temperature has gone down.
I know it's not like that everywhere.
I have seen a couple YouTube comments about people talking about Bogota, specifically how the weather does not change all year round.
But for most of the world, the temperature changes with the seasons.
So let's talk about these words that we use when the weather gets cooler.
The first term is freezing.
Freezing literally means that something is the temperature where water freezes.
That would be 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Reminder, I am from the United States.
We use Fahrenheit for our temperatures.
So if you are in the United States, you're only going to use Fahrenheit.
If you're not from the United States, I understand that you have no clue what that means.
So I'm going to also be including the Celsius temperature.
If someone tells you that it is freezing outside, if they are being literal, that means it is zero degrees Celsius, 32 Fahrenheit.
But a lot of times people will just say that phrase, even though it's really not that cold.
For example, I live here in Southern California.
It does not get to actual freezing temperatures here even during the winter.
It is very rare. that the temperature ever goes below freezing where I live.
So instead, people say this when it's a lot warmer than actual freezing temperatures.
Normally the lowest the temperature gets here during the winter is about 13 degrees Celsius, which is around 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and that is considered extremely cold for where I am.
When the temperature does get that low people, at least in my part of Southern California, will say that it's freezing.
I've had students come in with sweatshirts on and dressed very warmly and they come into my classroom and they say it's freezing, freezing outside.
And actually it's like 19 degrees Celsius, but for them that is freezing.
In other parts of the country though, they are used to snow.
They are used to having that freezing weather.
So for them, they are not going to say that it's freezing when it is 15 degrees Celsius outside.
Instead, people will usually use the term chilly.
Chili is usually used when it's around 13 to 17 degrees Celsius, about 45 to 55 Fahrenheit.
That is cold enough where you would use a sweatshirt or a jacket, but not really the type of weather where you would have any snow, nothing.
That's really extremely cold.
So chili can be used when it is cold, colder than normal, when you need to dress appropriately for the weather but it's not extremely cold yet.
When you do have those colder temperatures, you can get a thin layer of ice that forms on the ground and if you park your car outside, you might notice that there's also a thin layer of ice on your car, especially on your windows.
That is called frost.
So frost is the thin layer of ice that is usually seen in the mornings.
And normally, at least here in Southern California, it burns off after a few hours.
It doesn't stick around because it warms up during the day.
But during the nighttime, the temperature is low enough for that frost to occur.
You might also see the word frosty when someone is describing the conditions.
They might say that it's frosty outside, or they might say that there is some frost outside.
So frost would be the noun.
Frosty would be the adjective that you're using to describe the noun.
Even though it might not be extremely cold, it might feel colder than it is if you have a lot of wind chill.
Wind can make the air feel colder than it is when it is windy and cold.
It can make the air feel even colder.
So if you're watching the news, if you're watching the weather report, they might talk about the wind chill factor.
That is the difference that the wind makes in what the temperature feels like.
For example, you might hear on the news that the temperature is 15 degrees Celsius, but with the wind chill factor it feels like it is zero degrees.
That is telling you that the wind is making it feel like it is 15 degrees cooler than it really is.
We've talked about when it is freezing, when the temperature reaches that freezing point of water, where it hits zero degrees Celsius and water freezes.
Now, if you hear the term subzero temperatures, this is very important, at least in the United States.
We are talking about the Fahrenheit scale.
So the freezing point of water, that zero degrees Celsius, again, is 32 Fahrenheit.
So there are 32 degrees between the freezing point of water and the zero point on the Fahrenheit scale.
Zero degrees Fahrenheit is actually negative 17 degrees Celsius.
Very, very cold.
In places like Michigan or Wisconsin, New York Illinois, the places at the northern part of the United States, they can get sub-zero temperatures.
And by sub-zero, we're saying below the zero degree mark on the Fahrenheit scale.
So colder than negative 17 degrees Celsius.
If you hear on the news that there is going to be sub-zero temperatures overnight, that is extremely important to be aware of.
That can be very, very dangerous, because again we're talking temperatures of negative 18 degrees Celsius or below.
Those are extremely cold and dangerous conditions.
Colder weather can also mean a lot of precipitation.
Precipitation means water raining, water falling from the sky.
I did an episode on different things that we call rain, different words that we use to describe rain.
I will leave a link for that episode.
On this episode, I want to focus more on snow and the different types of freezing rain.
So the first one that you have is Hail usually occurs in warmer weather.
For example, where I am in Southern California, we can get hail during the summertime when it is like 30 35 degrees Celsius.
So hail doesn't necessarily need that cold weather, even though it is frozen water, even though they are pieces of ice.
Usually when they're talking on the news about hail, they will describe the size.
You might have something that is pea size, so the size of a pea, which is relatively small.
Or if it's very large pieces, you'll hear them called golf ball size, the size of a golf ball.
Those are very dangerous.
That can cause a lot of damage to houses and cars, especially if you're driving.
So you never want to be out in hail, especially golf ball sized hail, because that can do a lot of damage.
Something that is very similar to hail is freezing rain.
I remember the first time I heard this term I kind of laughed because I thought isn't frozen rain, just snow.
But freezing rain is actually something that's different.
Freezing rain is when it is raining outside and you see droplets of water falling.
You see regular rain droplets.
But what happens is that when those droplets hit something, they freeze.
This is especially true when the droplets hit something very cold.
For example, the ground or maybe your car.
Maybe your car is very cold.
When those droplets touch that cold surface, they freeze and turn into ice.
So this is called freezing rain, and this is more of an issue for places back east, because the ground can become very cold.
So when the raindrops hit the sidewalk, they can freeze, and that can make it difficult to walk.
If you are someone who is trying to walk to work or walk wherever you need to go, then that can be difficult to do because of that freezing rain.
And this can also cause something called black ice.
Black ice is dangerous if you are driving on it because it is ice that you cannot see.
The asphalt for the roads is black.
And when you get this layer of ice on top of it and that ice does not have a different color, it just looks black.
You might be driving and you might think that there is no ice on the roads, but actually there is a thin layer of ice.
So if you were traveling too fast or if you're trying to make a turn, you might hit black ice and you might be in a car accident because of it.
These are usually called patches of black ice, so the road might be completely normal and then there might be just a small section of this black ice.
So if someone says that they hit a spot of black ice or they hit a patch of black ice while they were driving, this is what they're referring to.
Usually, when you hit that, when your tires go over it, you feel that loss of traction for your tires, you feel your car move and, like i said, it can be very dangerous.
Another thing that's similar is sleet.
Sleet is kind of in between freezing rain and hail.
Like I said, hail forms during warmer weather, usually in thunderstorms.
Sleet forms in colder weather.
Again, you have rain droplets at the beginning.
When the water starts falling from the sky, it is in the form of liquid water, rain droplets.
But while they are falling, they freeze and turn into little pellets of ice.
So it feels very similar to hail, because it is still pellets of ice that are falling that ultimately hit the ground.
So these freeze before they hit the ground, which makes it different from freezing rain.
And they form in cooler weather, which makes it different from hail.
Then you can also have actual snowfall.
When you have a very short snowstorm, something that lasts maybe only a few minutes and then disappears.
This is called a flurry.
This is a short flurry. snowfall that does not accumulate on the ground.
Usually, as soon as the snow falls and actually reaches the ground, it melts right away, because it's not actually cold enough to accumulate on the ground.
Usually the ground is so warm that it just melts the snow.
If the snow does accumulate, if the storm does last for a longer period of time, then we actually use the term snow.
So snow usually means that you have some accumulation on the ground, that the storm lasts for a longer period of time.
You can actually put your kids outside.
Your kids can play in it.
They can have fun.
That's when you're going to say that it's actually snowing outside.
I can say personally for me I have only been in snow like this that actually accumulates on the ground twice in my entire life.
I have seen snow flurries before where I live.
Maybe for a few minutes, it'll snow and then it disappears.
It melts instantly.
But a few years ago, it actually did snow.
It snowed for a few hours.
We had some accumulation on the ground.
That was really exciting.
I called it magical because it was one of my first experiences actually having snow accumulate, seeing snow fall and being able to play with some snow, make some snowballs.
The individual pieces of snow, the little tiny pieces that fall gently to the ground, are called snowflakes.
So snowflakes are the frozen water droplets.
They usually have that really unique and beautiful pattern pattern.
That term snowflake you will also hear unfortunately, online.
I've seen it on social media.
Sometimes people use it to insult someone.
If you think of a snowflake, if it lands in the palm of your hand, if you catch a snowflake, it melts relatively quickly because your skin is so warm and The snowflake is so gentle, so delicate, so easily broken.
And that term recently has come along, especially online.
Not a very nice term, but if you hear it, that's what that means.
If a lot of snow is falling, if it is falling for a very long period of time multiple hours, maybe even days that is called a snowstorm.
So a snowstorm is when you have a lot of accumulation.
Maybe even a meter or a couple of meters of snow accumulate on the ground.
The snow lasts for a very, very long time.
This doesn't always have to come with high winds.
Usually snowstorm just means that the snow is falling for a long period period of time.
If you have that snow and high winds together, that gets called a blizzard.
A blizzard is a very intense snow storm.
You're having a lot of accumulation of snow.
You also have high winds and very cold temperatures.
Because of the high winds, you'll hear this term poor visibility.
That means that it is difficult to see.
Visibility means the ability to be able to see the.
If you have poor visibility, you usually can't see very far because of all of the snowflakes in the air, especially because of that high wind really pushing the snow in every direction.
That gets called poor visibility.
You'll also hear that called whiteout.
Whiteout is a product that you can use if you are someone like me who went to school before computers were really used.
You might have had some in your backpack when you went to school.
But we also use that term when you can't see anything when it is snowing.
A whiteout in that term means that the snow is so thick and the visibility is so poor that you can't see anything.
A lot of times, especially in the United States, you'll hear people say that they can't see a few feet from their face, or they can't see their hand if they put their hand out in front of their face.
That is what they're referring to, that poor visibility and that whiteout conditions.
If it's very cold for a long period of time, you might also hear the term cold snap.
A cold snap is when you have multiple days of very cold temperatures below zero degrees Celsius.
I have never experienced a cold snap, but if you are in places in the United States where winters are very cold, you might hear this term, or you might hear someone use this term when they're describing the weather.
If someone says that there is a cold snap or that the cold snap is going to last for the next couple of days, what that means is that there's going to be multiple days of below zero degrees Celsius temperatures.
And then of course, once the cold is over, you will hear the term warming up.
When the temperature starts to increase, when that winter weather starts going away, you will hear that the temperature is warming up.
The opposite, when the temperature goes down, it is cooling down.
So warming up, cooling down, those are terms that you will hear, especially at the beginning or the end of that winter weather.
If someone tells you that oh, next week it's going to warm up, that means the temperature is going to increase next week.
Or if they tell you, man, this weather really is cooling down, that means that it is getting colder.
Every single day is getting a little bit colder, usually because that means you're in winter time.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you learned some of these vocabulary terms.
Maybe some of these were new for you.
So a reminder to look at the description of this podcast episode for that vocabulary list.
Take any of the terms that are new to you study them and continue to build your English vocabulary.
If you enjoyed this episode.
If you want more vocabulary episodes like this in the future, please leave a comment and let me know.
That way, I can continue to plan for new episodes in the future and focus on things that you want to learn about and that you really want to explore when it comes to English.
And I really appreciate your support.
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Until then, keep learning English.
