A weather forecast is the most formulaic Hebrew you will ever read, and that is exactly what makes it worth reading. The vocabulary is a small closed list, the sentence shapes repeat from one day to the next, and once you can hear the frame you can follow a radio bulletin at full speed while knowing only some of the individual words.
The forecast below was written for this page. Israel's Meteorological Service is a State body, so its bulletins are protected for fifty years under section 42 of the Copyright Act, 5768–2007, and a newspaper's weather prose belongs to the newspaper — so nothing here is quoted from either.
The forecast
מזג האוויר להיום: בהיר עד מעונן חלקית, ללא שינוי ניכר בטמפרטורות.
mézeg ha'avír lehayóm: bahír ad me'unán khelkít, leló shinúy nikár batemperatúrot
Today's weather: clear to partly cloudy, with no significant change in temperatures.
בשעות הצוהריים צפויה עלייה קלה בטמפרטורות, והן ימשיכו לטפס עד יום שישי.
bish'ót hatsohoráyim tsfuyá aliyá kalá batemperatúrot, vehén yamshíkhu letapés ad yom shishí
Around midday a slight rise in temperatures is expected, and they will go on climbing until Friday.
במישור החוף תורגש לחות גבוהה, ואילו בהרים ובנגב האוויר יהיה יבש.
bemishór hakhóf turgásh lakhút gvohá, ve'ílu beharím uvanégev ha'avír yihyé yavésh
On the coastal plain high humidity will be felt, whereas in the hills and the Negev the air will be dry.
בערבה ובבקעת הירדן יגיעו הטמפרטורות ל־42 מעלות, ויש להיזהר מעומסי חום.
ba'aravá uvevik'át hayardén yagí'u hatemperatúrot learba'ím ushtáyim ma'alót, veyésh lehizahér me'omséi khom
In the Arava and the Jordan Valley temperatures will reach 42 degrees, and heat stress should be guarded against.
בלילה יהיה נעים ברוב אזורי הארץ, ובהרים אף קריר.
baláyla yihyé na'ím beróv ezoréi ha'árets, uveharím af karír
Overnight it will be pleasant in most parts of the country, and in the hills even chilly.
מחר יחול שינוי קל: הרוחות יתחזקו והשרב ייחלש בהדרגה.
makhár yakhúl shinúy kal: harukhót yitkhazkú vehasharáv yekhalésh behadragá
Tomorrow a slight change will occur: the winds will strengthen and the sharav will weaken gradually.
למרות התחזקות הרוחות, לא צפוי שינוי של ממש בעומסי החום לפני יום חמישי.
lamrót hitkhazkút harukhót, lo tsafúy shinúy shel mamásh be'omséi hakhóm lifnéi yom khamishí
Despite the strengthening of the winds, no real change in heat stress is expected before Thursday.
בסוף השבוע צפויה ירידה מתונה בטמפרטורות, וייתכן ערפל בשעות הבוקר.
besóf hashavúa tsfuyá yeridá metuná batemperatúrot, veyitakhén arafél bish'ót habóker
At the weekend a moderate drop in temperatures is expected, and morning fog is possible.
Prediction is a word, not a tense
English forecasts run on will: it will be hot, it will rain, temperatures will rise. The auxiliary is doing the predicting, and it is impossible to say a forecast sentence without it.
Hebrew has no auxiliary. The future is a single inflected word — יהיה, יגיעו, יתחזקו — and it is the ordinary way of talking about tomorrow, which means it carries no flavour of forecast at all. אחזור בשמונה, "I'll be back at eight", is the same grammar; see using the future. So Hebrew signals this is a prediction lexically instead, with a small set of words that appear in almost every bulletin:
| Word | Reads | Does |
|---|---|---|
| תחזית | takhazít | the forecast itself; לפי התחזית frames anything as predicted |
| צפוי | tsafúy | "expected" — the single commonest word in the register |
| ייתכן | yitakhén | "it is possible that" — a weaker prediction |
| יחול | yakhúl | "will occur, will take effect" — used of a change, never of weather itself |
יחול is worth a moment. It is the future of חל, a verb meaning to fall on, to take effect, and in the forecast it appears in one frozen collocation: יחול שינוי — "a change will occur". You cannot say יחול גשם or יחול חום. The change occurs; the weather does not. The subjectless frames underneath all of this are on impersonal sentences.
לפי התחזית, יחול שינוי במזג האוויר כבר ביום שלישי.
lefí hatakhazít, yakhúl shinúy bemézeg ha'avír kvar beyóm shlishí
According to the forecast, a change in the weather will occur as early as Tuesday. (forecast register)
אומרים שמחר יהיה קריר יותר, סוף סוף.
omrím shemakhár yihyé karír yotér, sof sof
They say it'll be cooler tomorrow, at long last. (everyday — same future tense, no forecast vocabulary at all)
צפוי agrees with something that has not arrived yet
צפוי is a passive participle used as a predicate, and like every Hebrew adjective it agrees in gender and number. What makes it hard is the word order: the forecast puts צפוי first and the subject after it, so you must commit to an ending before you have heard what you are agreeing with.
| Form | Reads | Goes with |
|---|---|---|
| צפוי | tsafúy | שינוי, גשם, ערפל — masculine singular |
| צפויה | tsfuyá | עלייה, ירידה, התחזקות — feminine singular |
| צפויים | tsfuyím | גשמים, ממטרים — masculine plural |
| צפויות | tsfuyót | רוחות, טמפרטורות — feminine plural |
Notice how much of the forecast vocabulary is feminine verbal nouns — עלייה, ירידה and הופעה in ־ָה, and התחזקות and החלשות in ־וּת, which is feminine too. That is why צפויה turns up far more often than a beginner expects.
צפויים גשמים מקומיים בצפון הארץ ובגליל.
tsfuyím gshamím mekomiyím bitsfón ha'árets uvagalíl
Local rain is expected in the north of the country and in the Galilee.
בירושלים ובהרי יהודה יהיה קריר מהרגיל בשעות הלילה.
birushaláyim uveharéi yehudá yihyé karír meharagíl bish'ót haláyla
In Jerusalem and the Judean hills it will be cooler than usual overnight.
למרות takes a noun phrase; למרות ש takes a clause
The forecast says למרות התחזקות הרוחות — "despite the strengthening of the winds". A noun phrase follows למרות directly, with nothing between them. To put a clause there instead you must add ש, and then the sentence has a verb in it.
למרות שהטמפרטורות ירדו קצת, עדיין קשה לישון בלילה.
lamrót shehatemperatúrot yardú ktsat, adáyin kashé lishón baláyla
Even though the temperatures dropped a bit, it's still hard to sleep at night. (a clause, so ש is obligatory)
Written Hebrew leans on the first shape because a nominalised phrase is shorter: התחזקות הרוחות replaces שהרוחות יתחזקו, and a bulletin that must fit into thirty seconds counts every word. The same instinct produces ירידה בטמפרטורות rather than הטמפרטורות ירדו, and it is why a forecast can be almost verb-free.
הן, and the pronoun that picks up the temperature
The second forecast sentence ends והן ימשיכו לטפס, and it is worth being exact about what הן picks up. The clause before it is צפויה עלייה קלה בטמפרטורות, whose subject is עלייה — but it is not the rise that goes on climbing, it is the temperatures, so the pronoun reaches past the head noun and into the prepositional phrase to get them. Hence feminine plural: הן and not הם, with ימשיכו agreeing in turn.
English they has no gender, so this is precisely where an English speaker guesses, and guesses masculine. The weather words worth pinning down: טמפרטורות and רוחות are feminine plurals; גשמים, ממטרים and עומסים are masculine plurals; לחות is a feminine singular even though it ends in ־ות.
ימשיכו לטפס is the other feature of that sentence. Hebrew expresses continuing to do something with המשיך + infinitive, and its close relative הוסיף + infinitive ("to do further") belongs to a more literary register.
הגשם ממשיך לרדת כבר יומיים, אין סיכוי לצאת.
hagéshem mamshíkh larédet kvar yomáyim, ein sikúy latsét
It's been raining for two days straight, there's no chance of going out. (everyday — same construction, ordinary conversation)
The map every forecast is built on
Israeli forecasts do not give city temperatures first. They give regions, in a fixed order that runs roughly from the sea inland and from north to south, and the region names are all smichut chains or definite plurals.
| Region | Reads | Where |
|---|---|---|
| מישור החוף | mishór hakhóf | the coastal plain — humid, mild |
| ההרים · הרי יהודה | haharím · haréi yehudá | the hills, including Jerusalem — cooler, dry |
| הנגב | hanégev | the southern desert |
| הערבה · בקעת הירדן | ha'aravá · bik'át hayardén | the rift valley — always the hottest figures |
Three more words the bulletin assumes you know. לחות lakhút is humidity, and on the coast it is the whole story — thirty-two humid degrees by the sea are harder work than thirty-eight dry ones inland. מעונן חלקית me'unán khelkít is "partly cloudy", with חלקית an adverb in ־ית. And שרב sharáv is the hot dry easterly episode that arrives mostly in spring and autumn; the forecast calls it שרב, and in everyday speech you will also hear חמסין khamsín for the same thing. The everyday half of this vocabulary — איזה חום, יורד גשם, כמה מעלות היום — is on weather expressions.
Common Mistakes
1. Leaving צפוי unmarked when the subject follows it. The subject comes second, so the ending has to be chosen before you say it — and the default that comes out is the masculine singular.
❌ צפוי עלייה קלה בטמפרטורות
Incorrect — עלייה is feminine, so the predicate must be too: צפויה עלייה קלה בטמפרטורות.
צפויה התחזקות של הרוחות בשעות הערב.
tsfuyá hitkhazkút shel harukhót bish'ót ha'érev
A strengthening of the winds is expected in the evening hours.
2. Putting ש after למרות when a noun phrase follows. This is the mirror image of the usual error: once you have learned that למרות needs ש, you start adding it everywhere.
❌ למרות שהירידה בטמפרטורות, עדיין חם מאוד
Incorrect — הירידה בטמפרטורות is a noun phrase, so למרות takes it directly: למרות הירידה בטמפרטורות, עדיין חם מאוד. ש goes in only before a clause with a verb.
למרות הירידה בטמפרטורות, הים עדיין נעים מאוד.
lamrót hayeridá batemperatúrot, hayám adáyin na'ím me'ód
Despite the drop in temperatures, the sea is still very pleasant.
3. Picking up טמפרטורות with a masculine pronoun. English they carries no gender, so the Hebrew resumptive gets guessed.
❌ הטמפרטורות יהיו גבוהות והם ימשיכו לעלות
Incorrect — טמפרטורות is feminine plural, so both the pronoun and its verb are feminine: הטמפרטורות יהיו גבוהות והן ימשיכו לעלות.
הרוחות יתחזקו בערב, והן יימשכו גם במהלך הלילה.
harukhót yitkhazkú ba'érev, vehén yimashkhú gam bemahalákh haláyla
The winds will strengthen in the evening, and they will continue through the night too. (רוחות is feminine plural)
4. Reading the degrees with masculine numerals. Nothing in 42 מעלות tells you which set to use, and the masculine forms are the ones learners reach for.
❌ 42 מעלות
arba'ím ushnáyim ma'alót
Incorrect as a reading — מעלה is feminine, so the numeral is feminine: arba'ím ushtáyim ma'alót.
היום יגיעו לשלושים ושמונה מעלות בבית שאן.
hayóm yagí'u lishloshím ushmóne ma'alót bevéit she'án
Today they'll reach thirty-eight degrees in Beit She'an. (שמונה, the feminine form, and mil'el: shmóne)
Key Takeaways
- Hebrew's future is one inflected word with no auxiliary, so it does not by itself mark a sentence as a prediction. The forecast register is carried lexically — צפוי, תחזית, יחול, ייתכן.
- יחול goes only with שינוי. A change occurs; the weather does not.
- צפוי agrees with a subject that comes after it — צפויה עלייה, צפויים גשמים, צפויות רוחות. Much of the vocabulary is feminine verbal nouns in ־ָה and ־וּת, so צפויה is commoner than it looks.
- למרות takes a noun phrase directly; למרות ש takes a clause. Written Hebrew prefers the first because nominalising is shorter.
- טמפרטורות and רוחות are feminine plurals, so the resumptive pronoun is הן, not הם. לחות is feminine singular despite its ־ות ending.
- המשיך + infinitive is how Hebrew says keeps on doing; the literary twin is הוסיף + infinitive.
- Forecasts are organised by region — מישור החוף, ההרים, הנגב, הערבה ובקעת הירדן — before any city is named.
- מעלה is feminine, so degrees take feminine numerals: ארבעים ושתיים מעלות, שלוש מעלות.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Using the Future: Prediction, Intention, RequestA2 — One prefix conjugation covers everything English splits between will, shall, going to and the polite question — and it supplies the everyday command on top. Nothing in the form separates those readings, so this page is about what does.
- Weather and SeasonsA2 — A Hebrew weather sentence has no subject, no verb and nothing standing in for English 'it' — חם היום is already a complete sentence. This page gives the everyday inventory, the rain frame, the two nouns whose gender the dictionaries themselves hedge, and the Israeli year, which is not four seasons.
- Sentences with No Subject at AllB1 — Distinguish subjectless ambient predicates, impersonal modal frames, dative experiencers with and without an agreeing subject, and anonymous-agent plural verbs.
- Impersonal Predicates: כיף, נעים, חבל, קשה, כדאיB1 — Build Hebrew experiencer sentences with a default masculine-singular predicate and a ל־marked person, while recognizing where the same words agree outside this frame.