Weather talk is a daily currency in Portugal — the Portuguese complain about the weather with the same affectionate devotion the English do, and they have three distinct grammatical frames for doing it. English collapses everything into it is (it is cold, it is raining, it is sunny), but Portuguese distributes weather events across three verbs: estar a for ongoing actions, fazer for objective states like temperature and wind, and estar for current perceptions. Choosing the wrong verb will not stop you being understood, but using the right one is what separates a phrasebook learner from someone who sounds Portuguese.
This page lays out the three frames, the vocabulary for temperature and forecasts, and one fact that trips up every English speaker: Portuguese has no dummy subject. There is no "it" in it is raining. Portuguese just says está a chover.
The three frames, at a glance
| Frame | Used for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| estar a + infinitive | ongoing weather actions (raining, snowing) | Está a chover. |
| fazer + noun | objective states (cold, heat, sun, wind, temperature) | Faz frio. |
| estar + adjective/noun | current perception of the weather | Está nublado. |
All three are correct. Which one you choose depends on what kind of weather you are describing. The differences below will make the pattern clear.
Frame 1 — estar a + infinitive: ongoing actions
When the weather is doing something — raining, snowing, thundering — European Portuguese uses the estar a + infinitive construction. This is the European Portuguese equivalent of the English progressive. (Brazilian Portuguese uses está chovendo with the gerund instead; in Portugal this sounds foreign.)
Está a chover imenso, traz o guarda-chuva.
It's raining a lot, bring the umbrella.
Está a trovejar, os miúdos assustaram-se.
It's thundering, the kids got scared.
Olha como está a relampejar ao longe.
Look how it's lightning in the distance.
Está a fazer muito vento, cuidado com a porta.
It's really windy, watch out for the door.
Note the last one: vento (wind) is a noun, not a verb, so you cannot say está a ventar — you have to embed vento inside a fazer construction (está a fazer vento). Think of it as "it is doing wind".
Portugal also has a small vocabulary for extreme rain that belongs to this frame:
Está a chover a cântaros.
It's raining buckets. (lit. in jugs)
Está a chover a potes.
It's raining hard. (lit. in pots)
Está a chover torrencialmente.
It's raining torrentially.
Frame 2 — fazer + noun: objective states
When the weather is a state rather than an action — cold, heat, sun, wind as a general atmospheric condition, a specific temperature — Portuguese uses fazer + noun. Think of fazer here as "to do" in the sense of "to produce": the atmosphere produces cold, heat, sun.
Faz frio hoje, agasalha-te.
It's cold today, bundle up.
Faz um calor insuportável em agosto.
There's unbearable heat in August.
Faz sol, podemos ir à praia.
It's sunny, we can go to the beach.
Faz muito vento na costa vicentina.
It's very windy on the Costa Vicentina (southwestern coast).
Faz nevoeiro de manhã, conduz devagar.
It's foggy in the morning, drive slowly.
Faz bom tempo para um passeio.
The weather's good for a walk.
Faz mau tempo, é melhor ficarmos em casa.
The weather's bad, better to stay home.
Faz vinte graus, está perfeito.
It's 20 degrees, perfect weather.
Notice that the nouns here — frio, calor, sol, vento, nevoeiro — are masculine. Bom tempo and mau tempo use the masculine adjective because tempo is masculine. There is no agreement work to do; the structure is simply Faz + noun.
Frame 3 — estar + adjective or noun: current perception
The third frame uses estar with an adjective (or, sometimes, a noun). This describes how the weather is right now, as perceived — rather than what it is objectively doing or producing. Está frio and faz frio are both correct Portuguese, but they feel slightly different: faz frio is more neutral and objective ("the weather is cold"), while está frio is more about the felt experience ("it's cold right now").
Está nublado, parece que vai chover.
It's cloudy, it looks like it's going to rain.
Está limpo, o céu está azul.
It's clear, the sky is blue.
Está abafado, não há ar nenhum.
It's stifling, there's no air at all.
Está húmido, sente-se no ar.
It's humid, you can feel it in the air.
Está uma tempestade de arromba lá fora.
There's a huge storm outside.
Está frio, vou buscar um casaco.
It's cold, I'm going to get a jacket.
Está sol, vamos à esplanada.
It's sunny, let's go sit on the terrace.
Both faz sol and está sol are used. If you had to pick one as default, faz sol is slightly more common as a generic weather report; está sol is used when you are remarking on the sun being out at this very moment.
Complex and dramatic weather
Portugal has a rich vocabulary for storms, downpours, and showers. Some of these use frames you have not seen yet — vai cair (it's going to fall), está prevista (it's forecast).
Está uma trovoada enorme, não saias de casa.
There's a huge thunderstorm, don't go out.
Está um temporal como há muito não via.
There's a storm like I haven't seen in a long time.
Vai cair um aguaceiro a qualquer momento.
A downpour is going to fall at any moment.
Está prevista chuva para amanhã.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow.
Vai haver uma rega esta noite, pelos vistos.
There's going to be a good watering (rain) tonight, apparently.
Note uma rega — literally "a watering" — is used colloquially for a good soaking rain. It is affectionate farmer's vocabulary that has made its way into casual speech.
Temperature
Temperature takes fazer + graus (degrees), or sometimes estar + an evaluative expression.
Faz trinta graus à sombra.
It's 30 degrees in the shade.
Vai fazer trinta e cinco amanhã, infelizmente.
It's going to be 35 tomorrow, unfortunately.
Estão dezoito graus, está-se bem.
It's 18 degrees, it feels nice.
Está um frio de morte, tenho as mãos geladas.
It's freezing cold, my hands are frozen. (lit. a cold of death)
Está a arder, não se consegue estar na rua.
It's burning hot, you can't be outside. (lit. it's burning)
Vai descer a temperatura para o fim de semana.
The temperature is going to drop for the weekend.
Amanheceu friozinho, mas é capaz de aquecer.
It dawned a bit cold, but it may warm up.
The diminutive friozinho (literally "little cold") is characteristic of European Portuguese — adding -inho/-inha to weather adjectives softens them and signals affection or mildness. Ventinho (a nice breeze), solzinho (a little sun), chuvinha (a light rain).
Forecast and weather report language
If you listen to Portuguese weather reports or read forecasts, certain phrases come up constantly.
A previsão é de chuva para o Norte.
The forecast is for rain in the North.
O tempo vai abrir ao longo da tarde.
The weather is going to clear up over the afternoon.
O céu está encoberto em todo o território.
The sky is overcast across the whole territory.
Há possibilidade de trovoadas à noite.
There's a chance of thunderstorms at night.
Hoje faz calor em todo o país.
Today it's hot across the entire country.
The idiom o tempo vai abrir is worth noting: literally "the weather is going to open", meaning the clouds will part and the sun will come out. Abrir for weather is a set usage; you cannot predict it from general uses of abrir (to open).
How Portuguese speakers actually talk about weather
Weather talk in Portugal is not neutral reporting — it is emotional. A beautiful day earns praise; a rainy day earns commiseration. Two phrases come up constantly:
Está um dia maravilhoso, aproveita!
It's a wonderful day, make the most of it!
Está uma belezura de dia, não se pode pedir melhor.
It's a beauty of a day, you couldn't ask for better.
Que tempo tão horrível, não para de chover.
What awful weather, it won't stop raining.
Está um dia de cão lá fora.
It's a dog of a day outside. (very bad weather)
The construction está um + adjectival noun + de dia (está uma belezura de dia, está um horror de dia) is a common affective frame. Learners often produce o dia está maravilhoso instead, which is grammatical but flat by comparison.
Common mistakes
❌ Ele está a chover.
Incorrect — Portuguese has no dummy subject. Weather verbs are impersonal; do not add a pronoun.
✅ Está a chover.
It's raining.
❌ É frio hoje.
Incorrect — *ser* is for permanent identity; weather is *estar* or *fazer*.
✅ Está frio hoje. / Faz frio hoje.
It's cold today.
❌ Está ventando muito.
Incorrect in PT-PT — *ventar* as a verb sounds foreign here; and the gerund construction is Brazilian.
✅ Está a fazer muito vento. / Faz muito vento.
It's really windy.
❌ Faz chovendo.
Incorrect — *fazer* only takes nouns, not gerunds or verbs. For *chover* you need *estar a*.
✅ Está a chover.
It's raining.
❌ O tempo é bonito.
Stiff — literally correct but not idiomatic for weather; use the *estar* or *fazer* frames.
✅ Está um tempo lindo. / Faz bom tempo.
The weather is lovely.
Key takeaways
Related Topics
- Time ExpressionsA1 — Telling time in European Portuguese — clock time, general time words, frequency, duration, dates, and the PT-PT idioms for 'late at night' and 'running out of time'.