Episode 214 Vocabulary The Weather

Disclaimer

I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. Today’s episode is vocabulary intermediate, and we will talk today about the weather, or you might think that, you know everything about the weather. It’s hot, it’s snowy, it’s rainy, et cetera, but we will talk about some more words you can add to describe the weather more accurately, and to add more words to your arsenal of describing the weather.

[00:00:30] Before we start, let me remind you that you can find the transcript of this episode in a link. I will leave in the description and you will also find a link to Patreon where you can go and become a patron of English plus podcast and get a PDF practice worksheet. With every single episode we release.

[00:00:47] And now without further ado, let’s start with our episode about the weather. Now let’s start first with cold weather. I will read an excerpt talking about Northern Europe and the weather there, and we will figure out the meaning of some key words in this excerpt in Northern Europe. Daytime temperatures are often quite mild, even in late autumn.

[00:01:09] So here we have two words. I would like to talk about daytime temperatures and late arm. Now daytime, when we talk about daytime as one word, we mean something that happens during the day. And late autumn. It means towards the end of a period of time. So when I say late autumn or late fall, I mean the last few days or weeks of autumn or fall, and I can use it of course for winter, for summer and for spring.

[00:01:38] And this expression is different from saying the autumn came late this year or winter came late this year. And in this expression, you mean winter or summer was late to arrive, but here we’re talking about the last or towards the end of the spirit. So we use the late autumn in this example, and now let’s continue.

[00:02:00] The days are often Misty, foggy and damp. So we have here two more words, Misty and them. Now, when we say the days are often Misty, what do we mean Misty? Misty means with clouds of small drops of water in the air, making it difficult to see things in the distance. And it’s kind of the same light foggy, but what about them?

[00:02:24] That means slightly wet and not pleasant or comfortable. So let’s continue soon. Winter arrives with frost, icy roads and severe weather, including heavy snow. So we have frost. What is the meaning of frost? Now, frost is thin white layer of ice on surfaces. When the weather is very cold, that is frost. And when we talk about severe weather, we’re talking about extremely bad weather and now let’s continue.

[00:02:56] As people expect the weather to be bad, they try and keep warm. So they don’t freeze. Freezing weather may continue in the far North until may or even June when the ground starts to Thor and the ice melts again. So here we have two words I would like to focus on as well. And these are when we said when the ground starts to Thor, T H a w Thor and the ice melts again.

[00:03:26] Now thought means change from hard frozen state to softer state. But when we say melt, that means to change from solid to liquid under heat. So now, let me read you this excerpt once more. And now that you know all the words, you will understand it even better in Northern Europe. Daytime, temperatures are often quite mild, even in late autumn.

[00:03:50] These days are often Misty, foggy, and damn soon. Winter arrives with frost, icy roads and severe weather, including heavy snow. As people expect the weather to be bad, they try and keep worms. So they don’t freeze. Freezing weather may continue in the far North until may or even June when the ground starts to Thor and the ice melts again.

[00:04:15] So now we talked about cold weather. Let’s move on to talk about warm or hot weather. And the same year we will talk about a kind of climate. And we will guess the meaning of some words in this excerpt in a tropical climate. The weather is often stifling, muggy, and humid. So here we have first a tropical climate.

[00:04:37] What is a tropical climate? Tropical is very hot as in countries near the equator. And then we said, stifling, the weather is often stifling. What is the meaning of stifling? Stifling is hot, uncomfortable. You can hardly breathe. And McGee, what is McGee? McGee is very warm and a little damp, and that’s also not a very pleasant kind of weather.

[00:05:00] And now let’s continue in other hot climates. There may be boiling hot days and heat waves may be common. Now boiling hot means extremely hot. And when we talk about heat waves, we’re talking about very hot and dry periods. So let’s read this excerpt back again, and now, you know, the words, you will understand it even better in a tropical climate.

[00:05:24] The weather is often stifling, muggy, and humid in other hot climates. There may be boiling hot days and heat waves may be common. So that was about warm and hot weather. We learned tropical stifling, muggy, humid, boiling, and heat waves. But what about wet weather now to talk about what, whether we’re talking about rain?

[00:05:46] Of course, the main thing in a wet weather is the rain, but is it always the same way we can describe the rain or does it always rain the same way? No. Now we can start from a shower, which is. Not a very strong rain and then it becomes heavier and we call it heavy rain or even heavier. And we call it downpour or very heavy and we call it torrential rain, and it can also lead to a flood.

[00:06:14] Let’s take a look at these examples and we will understand better how we can use these words in sentences. Now let’s start with the first example, rain won’t last long. It’s only a shower. No, the shower is not very strong. Of course. And we also mean it’s a short period of rain, or we can say there was quite heavy rain during the night, but here we can use heavy rain as a noun.

[00:06:39] Like we said here, or we can say it rained heavily during the night we can use it both ways. They’re just fine. Of course, the rain here is heavier is stronger than just the shower. The rain can even become stronger, can become heavier. It was absolutely pouring yesterday and here we use it as a verb. We can also use it as a noun.

[00:07:01] We can say there was a real downpour. It can also be disastrous and a lot of rain can leave and lead to a flood. We can say in Malaysia, there’s usually torrential rain most days, and the roads sometimes get flooded. Now here flooded. We can use it like we did here as a verb, get flooded, or we can use it as a noun.

[00:07:24] We can say there are some times floods on the roads and I will talk about two more words that have to do with wet or not wet at all the opposite. Now the first one is just before rain. We can say the sky’s a bit overcast. I think it’s going to rain. When we say the sky is overcast or a bit overcast, it means very cloudy.

[00:07:46] And we can say we had a drought last summer. It didn’t train for six months and drought is just the opposite, no rain at all. So that was about wet weather. And now let’s move on to the last point we want to talk about in this episode, and that is wind. Now I will start with the slightest wind and go all the way to the strongest kind of wind there is.

[00:08:10] So let’s take a look at this first example. There was a gentle breeze on the beach, a gentle breeze, very slight lovely wind. Just enough to cool us. There was a gentle breeze on the beach, just enough to cool us. And now it gets a little strong, there was a very strong or high wind and my umbrella blew away.

[00:08:34] So strong, we can say strong wind, or we can say high wind. We can use both adjectives to describe strong wind or if it gets stronger. And that is a problem. And probably we should not go outside. In this case, there was a Gale that day, so we didn’t go sailing. And that is very high wind. And of course in this case, we should evacuate the area because if we stay there, it might be dangerous for our lives.

[00:09:02] And that is when we say hurricane. People stayed indoors because there was a hurricane on the way, and that is extremely high and dangerous wind. So we have all the way from the gentle breeze, strong or high wind Gale and all the way up to a hurricane, which can be very dangerous. With that being said, that was all I wanted to talk about today.

[00:09:25] In this episode, I hope you learn new ways and new words you can use to talk about the weather in more detail. And let me remind you that you can find the transcript of this episode in the link. I will leave in the description and you can also find a link that will take you to Patreon, where you can become a patron of the show and get a PDF practice worksheet.

[00:09:46] With every single episode we release. With that being said, this is Danny your host. Thank you very much for listening to another episode from English plus podcast. I will see you next time