Weather is the universal small-talk topic, and Spanish makes you choose between four different verbs to talk about it: hacer, estar, haber, and dedicated weather verbs like llover and nevar. None of these map cleanly onto English to be. Saying está frío when you mean it's cold is one of the most reliable beginner errors — the correct sentence is hace frío, with the verb "to do/make." This page gives you the full peninsular weather toolkit and the underlying logic for choosing the right verb every time.
It also gives you the climate vocabulary you actually need for Spain — the brutal calor of Madrid and Sevilla in August, the persistent lluvia of Galicia and Asturias, the niebla of inland winters, and the fresco evenings that arrive even in summer once the sun drops.
The four-verb weather system
Most weather expressions fall into one of four patterns. Choosing between them is not arbitrary — each verb captures a different way of conceptualising the weather.
| Verb | Pattern | What it captures |
|---|---|---|
| hacer | hace + noun | The weather as something the environment is "producing" or "doing" right now. |
| estar | está + adjective | The current state of the sky or atmosphere. |
| haber | hay + noun | The existence of a discrete weather phenomenon (storm, fog). |
| llover, nevar... | impersonal verb | A single dedicated verb for that specific phenomenon. |
The reason English speakers struggle is that English funnels almost everything through to be: it is cold, it is sunny, it is raining, there is fog. Spanish refuses to collapse these into one verb because they are conceptually different. Hace frío says the environment is generating cold; está nublado says the sky is in a cloudy state; hay niebla says fog exists in the area; llueve says raining is happening as an event.
Hacer + noun: temperature and basic conditions
The hacer family is the workhorse of Spanish weather. It pairs with nouns (not adjectives), and covers temperature, sun, wind, and the catch-all buen tiempo / mal tiempo.
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| hace frío | it's cold |
| hace calor | it's hot |
| hace fresco | it's cool / chilly |
| hace sol | it's sunny |
| hace viento | it's windy |
| hace bochorno | it's muggy / sticky-hot |
| hace buen tiempo | the weather is nice |
| hace mal tiempo | the weather is bad |
| hace un día estupendo | it's a lovely day |
Hace un calor de muerte. No salgo a la calle hasta las ocho.
It's deathly hot. I'm not going outside until eight. (informal) — peninsular hyperbole; un calor de muerte is the standard summer complaint in Madrid or Sevilla.
Hace fresquito. Coge una chaqueta antes de salir.
It's a bit chilly. Grab a jacket before you go out. — fresquito is the diminutive of fresco; peninsular speakers love this softener.
Hoy hace un día estupendo, vamos a la sierra.
It's a lovely day today, let's go to the mountains. — la sierra is the standard Madrid weekend escape (Guadarrama).
The intensifier mucho, not muy
Because frío, calor, viento, etc. are nouns here, you intensify them with mucho/-a, not muy. This is one of the most reliable English-speaker errors.
Hace mucho frío esta semana en Burgos.
It's very cold this week in Burgos. — mucho, not muy, because frío is a noun here.
¡Qué calor hace! Hace muchísimo calor.
It's so hot! It's incredibly hot. — muchísimo is the emphatic form; ¡qué calor! is the peninsular expressive standard.
Estar + adjective: the state of the sky
When you describe the state of the sky or the atmosphere — typically with an adjective or a gerund — Spanish uses estar. The two big patterns are está + adjective (nublado, despejado, soleado) and está + gerund (lloviendo, nevando).
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| está nublado | it's cloudy / overcast |
| está despejado | it's clear (no clouds) |
| está soleado | it's sunny |
| está lloviendo | it's raining |
| está nevando | it's snowing |
| está chispeando | it's drizzling (light rain) |
| está diluviando | it's pouring |
| está granizando | it's hailing |
| el cielo está gris | the sky is grey |
Está lloviendo a mares. No salgas sin paraguas.
It's raining buckets. Don't go out without an umbrella. (informal) — llover a mares is a fixed peninsular idiom; literally 'raining seas'.
El cielo está completamente despejado, se ven todas las estrellas.
The sky is completely clear, you can see all the stars. — despejado is the standard weather-report opposite of nublado.
En Gijón está nublado prácticamente todo el invierno.
In Gijón it's overcast practically the whole winter. — Asturias and Cantabria have a famously grey, wet climate compared to the Spanish interior.
Why estar and not ser?
Weather is by definition changeable — even Madrid's brutal August heat will end. Spanish reserves ser for inherent, defining traits and estar for current states, including weather. You will never say es nublado or es lloviendo. See ser vs estar for the full logic.
Haber (hay): the existence of a phenomenon
The third pattern uses hay — the impersonal form of haber, equivalent to English there is / there are. You use hay when treating the weather as a discrete thing that exists in the area: a storm, fog, clouds, a downpour, a wind.
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| hay tormenta | there's a storm |
| hay niebla | there's fog |
| hay nubes | there are clouds |
| hay lluvia | there's rain (forecast / report register) |
| hay viento (fuerte) | there's (strong) wind |
| hay humedad | it's humid |
| hay heladas | there's frost / freezing temps |
| hay chubascos | there are showers |
Hay mucha niebla en la autopista, conduce con cuidado.
There's a lot of fog on the motorway, drive carefully. — winter mornings on the meseta (Castilian plateau) are famously foggy.
Esta noche hay tormenta en toda la zona, dice la AEMET.
There's a storm tonight in the whole area, the AEMET says. — AEMET is the Spanish state weather agency, the peninsular equivalent of the UK Met Office.
Hace viento vs hay viento: a real distinction
Both work, but they are not identical. Hace viento describes the general windiness as a current condition; hay viento picks out the wind as a present phenomenon, often with a quantifier or modifier.
Hoy hace viento, llévate algo de abrigo.
It's windy today, take something warm with you. — general condition; hacer is the default.
Hay viento fuerte en la costa, han cancelado el ferry.
There's strong wind on the coast, they've cancelled the ferry. — specific quantified phenomenon; haber works better.
Impersonal weather verbs: llover, nevar, granizar
For rain, snow, and hail, Spanish has dedicated impersonal verbs that conjugate only in the third-person singular. They behave like English to rain / to snow but without any explicit subject (no Spanish equivalent of dummy it).
| Verb | Conjugation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| llover | llueve / llovía / llovió / lloverá | to rain |
| nevar | nieva / nevaba / nevó / nevará | to snow |
| granizar | graniza / granizaba / granizó | to hail |
| amanecer | amanece | to dawn / get light |
| anochecer | anochece | to get dark |
| tronar | truena | to thunder |
| relampaguear | relampaguea | to flash with lightning |
Both llover and nevar are stem-changing (o → ue, e → ie): llueve, nieva. This is a frequent A1 trap; love and neva do not exist.
Llueve mucho en Galicia, sobre todo en otoño.
It rains a lot in Galicia, especially in autumn. — Galicia is the wet corner of Spain; the Atlantic climate dominates.
Anoche nevó en la sierra y hoy está toda blanca.
Last night it snowed in the mountains and today they're all white. — nevó is the preterite; the sierra is the standard skiing range.
¿Llueve todavía? Pues no salimos.
Is it still raining? Right then, we're not going out. — colloquial peninsular pues at the start of a decision.
Llueve vs está lloviendo
Both mean "it's raining," but they shade differently:
- Llueve — a plain statement, often habitual or report-like ("it rains a lot here").
- Está lloviendo — emphasising right now, in progress.
Llueve casi todos los días en San Sebastián.
It rains almost every day in San Sebastián. — habitual; the present tense without progressive.
No puedo recogerte ahora, está lloviendo a cántaros.
I can't pick you up now, it's pouring buckets. — right now, in progress; the progressive is natural.
Peninsular climate vocabulary
Spain is climatically diverse: Mediterranean in the south and east, oceanic in the north, continental in the interior. The everyday vocabulary reflects this.
| Peninsular term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| una ola de calor | a heatwave (summer staple in the interior) |
| una ola de frío | a cold snap |
| el bochorno | muggy, sticky heat |
| la canícula | the dog days; the hottest stretch of summer |
| la humedad | humidity (the curse of the Mediterranean coast) |
| el chaparrón | a sudden downpour |
| el chubasco | a short shower |
| el aguacero | a heavy rainfall |
| la lluvia fina / orvallo | drizzle (orvallo is northern, from Galician) |
| el calabobos | persistent fine rain — literally "fool-soaker", northern |
| la cellisca | sleet |
| el rocío | dew |
| la escarcha | frost (visible white crystal) |
En Sevilla en agosto hace un calor del infierno; te derrites en la calle.
In Sevilla in August it's a hellish heat; you melt in the street. — Sevilla regularly hits 45°C; the hyperbole is peninsular standard.
En Bilbao siempre cae el calabobos, ese sirimiri que no para nunca.
In Bilbao the fool-soaker is always falling, that drizzle that never stops. — sirimiri is the Basque-origin word for persistent drizzle, used across the north.
Expressive forms: ¡vaya frío! ¡qué calor!
Peninsular Spanish has a small set of expressive exclamations for weather that you will hear constantly. They are built on qué + noun or vaya + noun.
¡Qué frío hace hoy! No se puede ni salir.
It's so cold today! You can't even go out. — ¡qué + noun + hace! is the standard expressive frame.
¡Vaya calor, tío! No se aguanta.
What a heat, mate! It's unbearable. (informal) — vaya is more colloquial than qué; tío is the peninsular 'mate'.
¡Menudo chaparrón nos ha caído!
What a downpour we got! (informal) — menudo is the third expressive option, often ironic ('some downpour').
Asking and answering about the weather
The standard exchanges:
—¿Qué tiempo hace ahí? —Aquí, fatal. Lleva lloviendo toda la mañana.
—What's the weather like there? —Awful here. It's been raining all morning. (informal) — fatal is the peninsular catch-all for 'terrible'.
—¿Cómo está el día? —Pues está nublado, pero no hace frío.
—How's the day? —Well, it's cloudy, but it's not cold. — ¿cómo está el día? is a natural alternative opener.
¿Sabes qué tiempo va a hacer mañana?
Do you know what the weather will be like tomorrow? — ir a + infinitive is the everyday future for weather forecasts.
Common Mistakes
❌ Está frío hoy.
Incorrect for talking about the air temperature. Está frío would describe a specific thing (the coffee, the food) being cold.
✅ Hace frío hoy.
It's cold today. — temperature in the environment uses hacer.
❌ Es muy viento.
Two errors: weather doesn't take ser, and viento is a noun (you'd need a different construction).
✅ Hace mucho viento.
It's very windy. — hacer + noun + mucho, never ser/estar + muy.
❌ Está muy frío hoy.
Even with estar, you can't say 'muy frío' to mean cold weather. With hacer + frío, intensify with mucho.
✅ Hace mucho frío hoy.
It's very cold today. — fixed peninsular pattern.
❌ Lueve mucho en Galicia.
Missing the o → ue stem change. The verb is llover, conjugated as llueve in the present tense.
✅ Llueve mucho en Galicia.
It rains a lot in Galicia. — stem change is obligatory.
❌ Hace nublado.
Nublado is an adjective, not a noun — hacer pairs only with nouns.
✅ Está nublado.
It's cloudy. — adjectives describing sky-state take estar.
❌ Hay sol.
Heard in Latin America but rare in Spain. Peninsular default for sunshine is hace sol.
✅ Hace sol.
It's sunny. — peninsular standard.
Key Takeaways
- Spanish weather uses four different verbs: hacer (with nouns), estar (with adjectives and gerunds), haber (with phenomena that "exist"), and dedicated impersonal verbs (llover, nevar, granizar).
- The question ¿Qué tiempo hace? with hacer is the peninsular standard opener.
- Hace frío / calor / sol / viento / buen tiempo — intensify with mucho, never muy, because these are nouns.
- Está nublado / despejado / lloviendo / nevando — sky-state and progressive forms take estar.
- Hay tormenta / niebla / nubes / chubascos — discrete phenomena that exist in the area take hay.
- Llover and nevar are stem-changing (llueve, nieva), only third-person singular, no subject pronoun.
- Spain is climatically diverse — the calor del infierno of Andalusian summers and the calabobos of the north are part of the cultural baseline.
- Expressive frames ¡qué frío!, ¡vaya calor!, ¡menudo chaparrón! are everyday peninsular small talk — adopt them.
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