Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O clima nesta cidade tem estado estranho: de manhã faz sol e à tarde há trovoada. - The climate in this city has been strange: in the morning it’s sunny and in the afternoon there is a thunderstorm.

o tempo = the usual word for day‑to‑day weather
- O tempo está bom. – The weather is good.
- Como vai estar o tempo amanhã? – What will the weather be like tomorrow?
o clima = literally climate, more about general / longer‑term patterns
- O clima desta região é seco. – The climate of this region is dry.
- In informal speech it can also be used like “weather” when you want to emphasise a pattern over a period of time.

In this sentence, O clima nesta cidade tem estado estranho suggests that over a recent period (days/weeks) the overall pattern of the weather has been odd. You could also say:

O tempo nesta cidade tem estado estranho…

That would also be perfectly natural in European Portuguese.

What exactly is nesta in nesta cidade? Why not em esta cidade or na cidade?

Nesta is a contraction:

em (in) + esta (this) → nesta (“in this”)

So:

nesta cidade = in this city
na cidade = in the city (in general, not necessarily “this” one)

You don’t say em esta cidade in normal speech; Portuguese almost always contracts such combinations:

em + a → na
em + o → no
em + esta → nesta
em + esse → nesse
em + aquele → naquele

So nesta cidade specifically points to this city (the one we’re talking about now).

What tense is tem estado in tem estado estranho, and what does it mean exactly?

Tem estado is the present perfect in Portuguese (called pretérito perfeito composto):

ter (present) + past participle
tem estado = has been (repeatedly / over a period)

In this sentence:

tem estado estranho ≈ “has been strange lately / over a period of time”

Important nuance:

In English, has been can refer to a single continuous situation (“It has been strange since Monday”).
In European Portuguese, tem estado estranho usually suggests something has happened repeatedly or over various occasions up to now.

Here it implies that on several recent days the weather pattern in this city has been weird, not just once.

Why tem estado estranho and not está estranho or esteve estranho?

All three are possible, but they say slightly different things:

O clima nesta cidade tem estado estranho.
- Focus: repeated / ongoing pattern up to now.
- Implies: over a recent period, on multiple occasions, the weather has been strange.
O clima nesta cidade está estranho.
- Focus: right now / at the moment.
- Implies: at the present moment, the weather is strange (doesn’t say much about the last days or weeks).
O clima nesta cidade esteve estranho.
- Pretérito perfeito simples (simple past).
- Implies: in some finished past period it was strange, but that period is now over.
- e.g. Esteve estranho na semana passada, mas agora já está normal.

So tem estado is chosen because the speaker wants to highlight a recent trend up to the present, not only the current moment or a fully finished past period.

Why is it de manhã but à tarde? Could I say na manhã or de tarde instead?

Portuguese has some set expressions with times of day:

de manhã – in the morning
de tarde / à tarde – in the afternoon
de noite / à noite – at night

In your sentence:

de manhã faz sol – in the morning it’s sunny
à tarde há trovoada – in the afternoon there is thunderstorm

Notes:

de manhã is the usual and most natural way to say “in the morning” in a general sense.
- na manhã is only used when specifying a particular morning:
  - Na manhã de segunda‑feira… – On Monday morning…
de tarde and à tarde are both used in European Portuguese.
- de tarde = generally “in the afternoon”
- à tarde can feel a bit more like a specific time of day, “in the afternoon / later in the day”, but in practice they often overlap.

So the sentence could also be:

De manhã faz sol e de tarde há trovoada.

The version with à tarde is just another natural variant.

Why is there a grave accent in à tarde? What does à mean here?

The grave accent in à marks a contraction (crasis):

a (preposition “to/at”) + a (feminine definite article “the”)
→ à

So:

à tarde = a + a tarde = “in the afternoon / at the afternoon time”

This crasis happens whenever:

You have a as a preposition, and
The next word begins with a and normally takes the article a (feminine singular).

Common examples:

Vou à escola. = Vou a a escola.
Chego à noite. = Chego a a noite.

In de manhã, there is no a + a combination, so there’s no grave accent.

Why does the sentence use faz sol instead of something like está sol or está ensolarado?

Portuguese often uses fazer for weather expressions:

Faz sol. – It’s sunny.
Faz frio. – It’s cold.
Faz calor. – It’s hot.
Faz vento. – It’s windy.

Here, faz sol literally looks like “it makes sun”, but functionally it means “it is sunny”.

You will also hear:

Está sol. – Also common, especially in speech.
Está ensolarado. – Grammatically correct, but much less frequent in everyday European Portuguese than faz sol or está sol.

In this sentence, de manhã faz sol is simply a very natural, idiomatic way of saying “in the morning it’s sunny.”

Why is it há trovoada and not tem trovoada?

Há comes from haver, which in this use means “there is / there are”:

Há trovoada. – There is thunderstorm / There’s thunder and lightning.
Há nuvens. – There are clouds.
Há vento. – There is wind.

In European Portuguese, using haver (há) is the standard way to say “there is/are”.

Using ter like this:

Tem trovoada. – literally “has thunderstorm”

is very common in Brazilian Portuguese in the meaning “there is/are”, but in European Portuguese it sounds informal or regional and is not the recommended standard.

So, for European Portuguese, há trovoada is the best choice.

Why is there no article before sol and trovoada? Why not o sol or uma trovoada?

In weather expressions, Portuguese often treats these nouns as general, uncountable phenomena, so it drops the article:

Faz sol. – It’s sunny.
Há trovoada. – There is thunderstorm (thunderstormy weather).
Há nevoeiro. – There is fog.
Há chuva. – There is rain.

Adding an article can change the nuance:

O sol = the sun as an object:
- O sol está forte. – The sun is strong.
uma trovoada = one specific storm:
- Ouvi uma trovoada muito forte. – I heard a really strong thunderstorm.
há trovoadas = there are several thunderstorms.

In the original sentence, the speaker is talking about weather conditions in general, so no article is the natural choice: faz sol, há trovoada.

Why does estranho end in -o here? How does the adjective agreement work?

Adjectives in Portuguese must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

clima is masculine singular → estranho must also be masculine singular.

Patterns with this adjective:

o clima estranho – the strange climate (masc. sing.)
os climas estranhos – the strange climates (masc. pl.)
a situação estranha – the strange situation (fem. sing.)
as situações estranhas – the strange situations (fem. pl.)

In your sentence:

O clima (…) tem estado estranho
- clima → masculine singular
- estranho → masculine singular to match it.

Could the sentence use tem sido estranho instead of tem estado estranho? What’s the difference?

Yes, you could say:

O clima nesta cidade tem sido estranho.

Difference:

estar = temporary / changeable state
ser = more inherent / characteristic quality

So:

tem estado estranho
- Emphasises the state of the climate has been strange (lately).
- Fits well with weather, because weather changes.
tem sido estranho
- Sounds more like “the climate has been (in general) a strange one” – a bit more about its character than about a series of temporary states.
- Still understandable and acceptable, but tem estado feels more natural for changing weather conditions.

For this specific sentence about odd daily patterns (sun in the morning, thunderstorms in the afternoon), tem estado estranho matches the idea of temporary but recurring states better.

Why is there a colon (:) after estranho instead of just a comma?

The colon is used to introduce an explanation or example of what was just said.

O clima nesta cidade tem estado estranho:
→ what follows explains in what way it has been strange:
de manhã faz sol e à tarde há trovoada.

So the structure is:

General statement: The weather has been strange
Colon
Concrete illustration: in the morning it’s sunny, and in the afternoon there’s a thunderstorm

You could also write it with a full stop:

O clima nesta cidade tem estado estranho. De manhã faz sol e à tarde há trovoada.

The colon just makes the connection (“strange because …”) a bit more explicit.

Can I change the word order of the second part? For example: À tarde há trovoada e de manhã faz sol?

Yes, you can change the order without changing the grammar; only the emphasis changes:

Original:
- De manhã faz sol e à tarde há trovoada.
- Emphasis: what happens in the morning first, then what happens in the afternoon.
Alternative:
- À tarde há trovoada e de manhã faz sol.
- Emphasis: starting from the afternoon situation, then the morning.

You can also front either time expression:

De manhã, faz sol e à tarde há trovoada.
À tarde, há trovoada e de manhã faz sol.

All are grammatically fine; you just highlight different parts of the day by putting them first.

How do you pronounce trovoada, and where is the stress?

Trovoada is pronounced approximately:

[tro-vo-A-da] (European Portuguese)

Details:

tro-: like “tro” in English “trot”, but with a single tapped r ([ɾ]).
-vo-: like “vo” in “vote” (but shorter).
-a- in -ada: a short “a” as in “father”.
The main stress is on -a-: trovoÁda.

So the stressed syllable is voa (written -voa-, but pronounced as two syllables: vo + a). In IPA (simplified for European Portuguese), something close to:

[tɾu.vo.ˈa.ðɐ]

In normal learner terms: say tro-vo-A-da, with your voice strongest on A.