Weather… it is crazy sometimes. Especially here, in Russia. Our country is huge and the climate varies in different parts of it. When it’s snowing in the north, it can still be warm in the south.
So, the weather takes a huge part of our everyday conversation. We talk about the weather with our friends, neighbours, acquaintances even if it doesn’t make sense. But how do we talk about the weather in Russian? How can we describe a nasty or a good weather? Let’s find out!
Weather Vocabulary Words List
пого́да – weather
прогно́з пого́ды – weather forcast
о́блачность – overcast
со́лнце – sun
не́бо – sky
о́блако – cloud
ту́ча – black cloud (before rain)
ве́тер – wind
дождь (m.) – rain
ли́вень (m.) – shower
снег – snow
град – hail
росá – dew
тумáн – fog
грозá – thunderstorm
шторм – storm
Visual weather dictionary in Russian:
Questions about the weather
In Russia people usually ask about the weather by saying:
Какая сегодня погода? – How’s the weather today?
Какая сегодня температура? – What’s the temperature today?
Сколько сегодня градусов? – How much degrees is today?
Какую погоду обещают завтра? – What’s the forecast for tomorrow?
Adjectives to describe the weather
холодный – cold (холодный ветер – cold wind, холодная вода – cold water)
тёплый – warm (тёплый день – a warm day, тёплая погода – warm weather, тёплое время
суток – the warm part of the day)
жаркий – hot
морозный – freezing
туманный – foggy
солнечный – sunny
безо́блачный – cloudless
дождливый – rainy
пасмурный/облачный – cloudy
прохладный – cool
Read also: Seasons and months in Russian
The Weather in Russian
Хорошая погода. – A good weather.
Сего́дня хоро́шая пого́да. – The weather is fine today.
Плохая погода. – A bad weather.
я́сная пого́да – clear skies
о́блачная пого́да – partly cloudy (skies)
неблагоприя́тная пого́да – unfavourable weather (conditions)
Солнечно. – It’s sunny.
Завтра будет солнечно. – Tomorrow will be a sunny day.
Облачно/пасмурно – It’s cloudy.
Холодно. – It’s cold.
Тепло. – It’s warm.
Жарко. – It’s hot.
Note that we use adverbs ending in -o here to describe the weather. We can also use adjectives with nouns but if we just want to make a short statement about how the weather is it’s better to do it with adverbs like пасмурно, холодно, жарко etc. These two are similar: сегодня солнечная погода and сегодня солнечно (it’s sunny today), however the second one is more common. Collocations “жаркая погода” or “холодная погода” sound quite unnatural.
Идёт снег. – It’s snowing.
Идёт дождь. – It’s raining.
Ду́ет ве́тер. – It’s windy.
Солнце светит. – The sun is shining.
Notice that we use the verb “идти” with raining and snowing. We literally say that the snow or the rain “goes”. It’s another funny thing about the Russian language.
Here are some collocations with the word дождь (rain):
Here are some phrases to describe certain weather conditions:
Сегодня очень сильный ветер. – The wind is very strong today.
Небо так быстро темнеет. Скоро пойдет дождь. – The sky is getting dark so quickly. It’s going to rain soon.
Сегодня довольно прохладно. Завтра обещают жаркий день. – Today it is quite cool. The weather forecasters promise a hot day for tomorrow.