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Le temps
Understanding French weather terms is useful for deciding what to wear, planning what to do, and, of course, making small talk.
The French word for weather is le temps, and the primary verb used to talk about the weather is faire; more specifically, the impersonal il fait. The French equivalent of "How’s the weather?" is literally "What weather is it doing?": Quel temps fait-il ?
The weather report and forecast is called la météo, short for la météorologie.
Here are the most common French weather terms – click the links for sound files, or the (verbs) for conjugation tables.
| It’s … | Il fait … | (faire) | ||
| nice out | beau | |||
| hot | chaud | |||
| cool | frais | |||
| cold | froid | |||
| humid | humide | |||
| heavy/close | lourd | |||
| cloudy | nuageux | |||
| stormy | orageux | |||
| bad weather | mauvais | |||
| ___ degrees | ___ degrés* | |||
| It’s | Il y a … | (avoir) | ||
| sunny | du soleil | |||
| windy | du vent | |||
| foggy | du brouillard | |||
| It’s … | Il … | |||
| raining | pleut | (pleuvoir) | ||
| pouring | pleut à verse | |||
| snowing | neige | (neiger) | ||
| freezing | gèle | (geler) | ||
| hailing | grêle | (grêler) | ||
You can’t talk about normal weather conditions with être (to be); you need either faire or a specific verb like pleuvoir.
* The French use Celsius for weather, so for example il fait 30° means that it’s hot (86°F), not below freezing as 30° Fahrenheit indicates.
Extreme weather / Natural disasters
| It’s a | C’est | |||
| cold spell | une vague de froid | |||
| cyclone | un cyclone | |||
| downpour sudden downpour |
un déluge une giboulée |
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| heat wave | la canicule | |||
| hurricane category 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
un ouragan de catégorie 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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| storm | un orage une tempête |
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| tornado | une tornade | |||
| tropical storm | un cyclone tropical un orage tropical |
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| typhoon | un typhon | |||
Miscellaneous
| bad weather | des intempéries (f) | |
| bolt of lightning | un coup de foudre | |
| flood | une inondation | |
| flood tide | une marée haute | |
| good weather | le beau temps | |
| gust of wind | une rafale | |
| hail | la grêle | |
| rain | la pluie | |
| snow | la neige | |
| tidal wave | un raz-de-marée | |
| weather balloon | un ballon-sonde | |
| weather chart | une carte météorologique |
Weather Quiz
Think you’ve got it? Test yourself on French weather terms with this fill-in-the-blanks exercise:
Want more? Check out the PwLF super list of lessons related to weather
French weather expressions
- À la Chandeleur, l’hiver cesse ou prend vigueur
- un cas de force majeure
- un coup de foudre
- En avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil
- être trempé comme une soupe
- faire un froid de canard
- faire un temps de Toussaint
- Le fond de l’air est frais
- Il pleut des cordes
- Noël au balcon, Pâques au tison
- Noël sous la neige
- Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps
- Vive le vent
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Verb conjugation tables for more than 1,600 French verbs in all the simple and compound tenses and moods.
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