Bonjour, voici la météo.
Cet après-midi, dans le sud de la France,
il ne fait pas beau : il pleut.
À l’ouest, il fait gris.
Il y a des nuages.
Au nord, il fait beau.
Il y a du soleil.
Dans l’est de la France, il neige un peu.
Les températures ?
Quinze degrés dans le sud et dans l’ouest,
dix degrés à l’est,
et vingt degrés dans le nord.
The weather in French
- Starting with a word problem
- Ask what the French weather is like
- Learn « il fait » to answer the question about the weather in French
- Learn the weather verbs in French
- Learn « il y a » to continue describing the weather in French
- Learn extra adjectives to finish describing the weather in French
- Don’t forget the temperatures when describing the weather in French
- Some French expressions to complete your own weather report
- How to survive a French weather forecast
- And now, go out well prepared to discover the French weather
1. Starting with a word problem
In French, there is a little problem with the word for weather. We use the word « temps ».
The word « temps » has two meanings:
– the first meaning: « le temps qui passe » = the time that passes (that of calendars, clocks, our ages…) 
– the second meaning: « le temps qu’il fait » (the weather) (you also can say : la météo) 
Is this a problem?
Actually no, because the context makes it easy for you to tell the difference (context is the foreign language learner’s best friend).
For example:
Quel temps fait-il aujourd’hui ? Du soleil ou de la pluie ?
What’s the weather like today? Is it sunny or rainy?
and
Aujourd’hui, je n’ai pas le temps. Je suis trop occupé.
I don’t have time today. I’m too busy.
2. Ask what the French weather is like
When you want to talk about the weather, where do you start?
Simply with a question (or several questions): know how to ask what the weather is like or will be like.
To find out about the current weather, you can ask the following question:
Quel temps fait-il ?
What’s the weather like?
or in more colloquial French:
Il fait quel temps ?
But you can also ask if the weather is nice (it’s practically this kind of weather that we are interested in):
Il fait beau aujourd’hui ?
Is the weather nice today?
To know what the weather will be like (i.e. in the very near future: the afternoon, the next day, the weekend), you need to use a future tense.
The ‘futur simple’ tense with a time indication:
Quel temps fera-t-il cet après-midi / demain / ce weekend ?
What will the weather be like this afternoon / tomorrow / this weekend?
For the familiar version without inversion, say:
Il fera quel temps cet après-midi / demain / ce weekend ?
Or the ‘futur proche’ (near future):
Quel temps va-t-il faire cet après-midi / demain / ce weekend ?
What will the weather be like this afternoon / tomorrow / this weekend?
For the colloquial version without inversion, say:
Il va faire quel temps cet après-midi / demain / ce weekend ?
3. Learn « il fait » to answer the question about the weather in French
Do you remember the question you have to ask if you want to know what the weather is like?
You know that it is often useful to reuse words from the question to formulate a long answer (a real French sentence). In this case, it’s very convenient.
Well, here it is: the question is
Quel temps fait-il ?
The words you need to reuse are: « il » and « fait ».
And the information that needs to be added takes the place of « Quel temps ».
And we can say:
Il fait beau. 
The weather is nice.
Il fait chaud. 
It’s hot.
Il fait doux.
It’s mild.
Il fait bon.
It’s nice.
Il fait froid. 
It is cold.
Il fait mauvais. 
The weather is bad.
Il ne fait pas beau.
The weather is not nice.
4. Learn the weather verbs in French
Let’s start with verbs that say something about the weather. There are not many of them. Here are the 4 most important ones (the others are hardly never used in everyday language):
Il pleut. 
It’s raining.
Il neige. 
It is snowing.
Il grêle. 
It is hailing.
Il vente. 
It’s windy.
First remark: these verbs do not really describe a warm and pleasant weather.
Second remark: These are impersonal verbs, which means that they are only used with the pronoun ‘il’.
Third remark: for each of these verbs, there is a useful noun to know.
Il pleut. -> la pluie
It is raining. -> the rain
Il neige. -> la neige
It is snowing. -> the snow
Il grêle. -> la grêle
It hails. -> the hail
Il vente. -> le vent
It is windy. -> the wind
5. Learn « il y a » to continue describing the weather in French
We have already seen the structure « il fait » which answers the question
Quel temps fait-il ?
to say, for example:
Il fait beau. 
We have already seen some weather-specific verbs (for example: « Il pleut. »).
Now, here is a structure that allows us to describe the weather in more detail:
il y a 
there is
(by the way, note that the expression « il y a » is one of the most powerful expressions in French for describing something; we could even say for describing everything and anything)
You look out the window and then you can say :
Il y a du soleil.
there is sun
Il y a des nuages. 
there are clouds
Il y a du vent.
it’s windy
Il y a un orage. 
there is a storm
Il y a des éclairs. 
there is lightning
Il y a du verglas. 
there is black ice
Il y a un arc-en-ciel. 
there is a rainbow
etc.
Experience a stormy weather with this vidéo.
6. Learn extra adjectives to finish describing the weather in French
With the word « le ciel » (the sky) and some usefull adjectives, you can complete your description of a French weather.
Le ciel est bleu. 
The sky is blue.
Le ciel est gris. 
The sky is grey.
Le ciel est couvert.
The sky is overcast.
Le ciel est nuageux.
The sky is cloudy.
7. Don’t forget the temperatures when describing the weather in French.
When we talk about weather, we are also talking about temperatures. It is very important to know if you can wear only a t-shirt and short trousers today. Or maybe you want to know if it will be cold enough to go ice skating this weekend on the small lake near your home.
By the way, in French, the word is : la température.
First you have to know the question :
Quelle températures fait-il (dehors) ?
How hot/cold is it (outside)?
Secondly, you need to know what temperature system we use in France.
We use : le degré Celsius (C˚)
1 degré Celsius = 33,8 degrés fahrenheit
Thirdly, it’s important to be able to count in French. This is not so complicated with Celsius, as the temperature almost never exceeds (in Europe) 40 degrees Celsius.
Finally the answers …
Il fait vingt degrés.
It is twenty degrees.
Il fait zéro degré.
It is zero degrees.
Il fait moins deux.
It is minus two.
Yes, we always use ‘il fait’.
If you want to be a French numbers champion, take a look at the French Number Workout Method.
8. Some French expressions to complete your own weather report
Expressions are always colorful. But they are often difficult to use when you start with French. However, since these expressions are part of everyday French, it is useful to know them – I mean: to understand them.
So …
Il fait un temps de chien.
literally translated : It’s a dog weather.
the weather is awful, the weather is dreadful, the weather is terrible
or
Il fait un temps pourri.
It’s a rotten weather
Il pleut des cordes.
literally translated : It’s raining ropes.
It’s raining cats and dogs
or
Il pleut comme vache qui pisse.
literally translated : It’s raining like a pissing cow.
It’s raining buckets.
Il fait un temps de canard.
literally translated : It’s a duck weather.
It is freezing.
or
Ça caille.
literally translated : It’s curdling. (?)
It’s freezing.
On crève de chaud.
literally translated : We’re dying of heat.
We are baking.
Again, it is not necessary to learn them in the first instance, but it can be useful to understand them.
9. How to survive a French weather forecast
Imagine: you are in France and you want to follow the weather reports on the radio or television. It’s hell! It’s going too fast and there is too much information. What can you do?
Firstly, stay calm.
Secondly, learn to locate where you are. On television, it’s not too difficult, but you still need to know how to find the place where you are on holiday on the map of France. On the radio (but also on television), you need to know the following things:
– the name of the region where you are (note that since 2015, there has been a new administrative division of the French regions with new names, such as Grand Est, Nouvelle Aquitaine, Occitanie, etc.)
– the name of the department where you are (France has 96 departments, such as Ardennes, Finistère, Vendée, Dordogne, etc.)
– the name of one or two (major) cities near your holiday destination (Sedan, Brest, Dijon, Pau, Nîmes, etc.)
– some notions of the geography of France (la Côte Atlantique, la Côte d’Azur, les Pyrénées, les Alpes, etc.)
– and expressions to orientate oneself on a map:
– le nord / au nord / dans le nord (north) 
– le sud / au sud / dans le sud (south) 
– l’est / à l’est / dans l’est (east) 
– l’ouest / à l’ouest / dans l’ouest (west) 
– le centre / au centre / dans le centre (center) 
And once you know how to locate yourself on a map, or how to recognize when the radio is talking about the place you are interested in, then you have to watch and listen carefully to what is being said about the weather.
The mistake would be to try to understand the whole weather report. The right strategy is to spot the moment of the right information orally. Of course, this also means that you have learned the basic expressions (those seen in the previous newsletters and those that will be covered on Saturday). For temperatures on the radio, it is also useful to understand the numbers in French…
Take a look at this weather forecast…
10. And now, go out well prepared to discover the French weather
Now that you know what the weather is like outside, you should equip yourself accordingly.
If the weather is not good, take
un parapluie 
an umbrella
un ciré 
a raincoat
des bottes 
boots
If it’s a beautiful day, don’t forget
une casquette 
a cap
un chapeau de paille 
a straw hat
des lunettes de soleil 
sunglasses
It’s cold ? Don’t forget…
un bonnet 
a woolen hat
une écharpe 
a scarf
des gants 
gloves
You are now ready to become a French weather expert.
Whether it’s spring (le printemps), summer (l’été), autumn (l’automne) or winter (l’hiver), you can now talk about the weather.
And to train you to understand the weather reports, I refer you to the harsh reality
of Méteo France (https://meteofrance.com/),
of the weather on the radio (https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/la-meteo)
or on television (http://www.tv5monde.com/programmes/fr/programmes-tv5monde-europe/ )
Good luck, and above all, I wish you good weather, avec un grand soleil (with a lot of sun) of course.
À bientôt, Jérôme
