Weather Forecast

Marco: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

Erica: And I’m Erica.

Marco: And today we’re gonna be talking about the weather.

Erica: That’s right, and, you know Marco, this is a really, really useful and important topic in English, isn’t it?

Marco: Exactly, because if you ever travel abroad, you always wanna know about the weather, right?

Erica: That’s right, and Anglo people… English people, all they ever do is talk about the weather.

Marco: Well, it’s an important topic; you wanna know what clothes to wear or if you should take an umbrella.

Erica: Or even when you’re making small talk with people.

Marco: Exactly, so, we’re gonna be taking a look at the weather in the United States, but before we get started with the dialogue, let’s take a look at “vocabulary preview”.

Erica: Okay, so, we have two words we’re gonna hear in the dialogue. Now, the first one is forecast.

Marco: Forecast.

Erica: Weather forecast.

Marco: So, this is what we listen to or what we see on the television - the weather forecast.

Erica: Right, it’s like the prediction of the weather.

Marco: Okay, so, forecast. Can I only use it in the weather?

Erica: No, of… of course, you can use it in many other different situations like in business, for example – forecast sales.

Marco: Okay, so, the prediction of sales.

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: Very good, and we have one more word on vocabulary preview – a shower.

Erica: A shower.

Marco: Shower.

Erica: Shower. So, when it… when it rains for a short time and it’s not too heavy, that’s a shower.

Marco: Okay, very good, so, it’s very similar to a… shower at home.

Erica: Right, it doesn’t… and it doesn’t last too long.

Marco: It… a little bit of water… Okay… Very good. So, why don’t we listen to our dialogue now? We are gonna be listening to the weatherman as he describes the weather in Utah.

Marco: Alright, so, we listened to the weather forecast and it doesn’t seem like nice weather in Utah, ha?

Erica: No, it certainly doesn’t. Uh, I don’t think that I would really, uh, like to live there.

Marco: Hehe. Well, maybe it’s winter or something like that.

Erica: Well, I guess yeah, maybe it’s good for skiing.

Marco: Okay, so, now I think it’s time for us to take a look at some of those maybe difficult words, that we may have listened to in this dialogue, in “language takeaway”.

Erica: Alright, here we’re gonna look at some words and phrases that you can use to describe the weather. Now, the first one – we heard in the weather forecast that they were calling for scattered showers.

Marco: Scattered showers.

Erica: Scatter.

Marco: Scattered. If something is scattered…

Erica: It’s sort of like, um… it’s a little bit of that thing everywhere.

Marco: Okay, so, and we already talked about what showers were.

Erica: Right, so, shower is, uh, a small bit of… a small amount of rain.

Marco: Okay, very good. To better understand when something is scattered, imagine that we are in a playground and the children are playing in the playground.

Erica: Okay.

Marco: So, the children are scattered everywhere; some of them are playing on the swing, some of them are playing, uh, on the grass or in the sandbox. So, children… a little bit of children in every different spot.

Erica: So, if we think that the city is a playground, um, maybe in one part of the city there’s a little bit of rain, but not in the other part.

Marco: Exactly.

Erica: That’s a scattered shower.

Marco: Very good! Moving on to our second word – we have hovering.

Erica: Hovering.

Marco: Temperature’s hovering around the thirty degree mark.

Erica: The temperature is hovering around.

Marco: Okay, so, when I say the temperatures are hovering…

Erica: You mean it’s approximately…

Marco: Okay, so, they can move up and down, so, maybe it’ll be a little bit warmer than thirty degrees or a little bit colder.

Erica: Yes! So, if you think of hovering as floating.

Marco: Okay, very good! So, why don’t we listen to some more examples of how we could use hovering in different situations?

Man: Unemployment rates are hovering around the ten percent mark despite the government's attempts to stimulate the economy.

男: 尽管政府采取了刺激经济的措施，但失业率依然在 10% 的关口居高不下（徘徊）。

Woman: The waiter has kept hovering around us all night; it was really annoying.

女: 那个服务员整晚都在我们桌子旁边转来转去的，真令人烦躁。

Man: The company’s margin this year is hovering around the forty percent mark.

男: 公司今年的利润率一直在 40% 左右波动。

Erica: Okay, so, pretty clear, hovering is sort of floating around one area.

Marco: Very good. Now, let’s move on to the next part. We saw that we’re gonna have isolated downpours.

Erica: Isolated downpours.

Marco: Isolated downpours.

Erica: Okay, let’s break this one down. Um, let’s start with downpour.

Marco: A downpour is when you have a lot of rain, very strong rain.

Erica: That’s right, for maybe a short amount of time it’s really raining heavily.

Marco: Right, so, that’s what a downpour is. And if we take a look at the first word – isolated…

Erica: So, in one small area.

Marco: Okay, confined to a specific area.

Erica: That’s right.

Marco: Okay, so, we have an isolated downpour - it’ll be raining in one specific area.

Erica: And you hear this a lot with weather language. You hear isolated showers, isolated snowstorms.

Marco: Exactly, so, it’ll be in a specific area only.

Erica: Alright, so, along with these showers and rain, we also talked about wind and… and we heard that we will have gusts reaching 23 miles per hour.

Marco: So, we’re gonna have gusts reaching 23 miles per hour.

Erica: Gusts of wind.

Marco: Okay, so, can you explain, uh, to our listeners what gusts are?

Erica: Okay, so, a gust is a sudden increase in the amount of wind.

Marco: Okay, so, maybe we will have normal wind and… and all of a sudden it will get really windy.

Erica: That’s right, for a short amount of time.

Marco: Okay, that’s a gust.

Erica: G-U-S-T, gust.

Marco: Gust of wind. And for our final word on language takeaway today we’re gonna have sleet.

Erica: Sleet.

Marco: Sleet.

Erica: Alright, sleet is a terrible kind of weather, it’s sort of a mixture between snow and rain.

Marco: So, sleet is kind of this strange mix between ice and… and rain and snow. So, just imagine, it’s not completely ice, so it’s not solid.

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: But, it’s not water, right? It’s not rain. It’s something…

Erica: And it’s not snow either.

Marco: No, it’s in the middle.

Erica: Okay.

Marco: Alright, so, sleet.

Erica: But what you really need to know is that it’s terrible.

Marco: Haha. Alright, so, that’s all the words we have today for language takeaway. Let’s move on now to “fluency builder”.

Erica: Alright, on fluency builder today we’re gonna look at three phrases that are really common when you’re talking about the weather. Now, we heard in the dialogue that there was a cold front moving in.

Marco: A cold front moving in.

Erica: A cold front is moving in.

Marco: Okay, so, a cold front.

Erica: Imagine a wall of cold air, um, and it comes towards a place and then it changes the pressure in the atmosphere.

Marco: Okay, so, uh, very sudden amount of cold air that comes into a place.

Erica: Right. So, we say a cold front is moving in.

Marco: Uhu. So, we always think of these cold fronts or warm fronts as moving. So, you can either say they’re moving in or you can say a cold front is coming in.

Marco: Okay, very good, and… okay, we have a cold front that’s moving in and we’re gonna have winds that will be coming in from the North-East.

Erica: Okay, winds coming in from.

Marco: Okay, winds coming in from. So, when I say it’s coming in from…

Erica: You’re talking about its origin, where it starts.

Marco: Okay, so, if I change the noun and I say… and I don’t say winds anymore, but maybe I’ll say “my friends”.

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: My friends are coming in from…

Erica: Chicago.

Marco: Chicago, so…

Erica: Yeah. They are arriving from Chicago.

Marco: Exactly. What else can I say?

Erica: Or you can also say “the kids are coming in from outside”.

Marco: Okay, so, where they were before.

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: Very good, so, coming in from, you can change the noun a little bit and you can form these new sentences.

Erica: Great! Now, our final phrase – we heard the announcer say “it’s gonna be a cold one”.

Marco: It’s gonna be a cold one.

Erica: It’s gonna be a cold one.

Marco: So, I have this phrase “it’s gonna be a cold one”; what do I mean by a cold one?

Erica: Okay, so, the one represents the event, so the day, right?

Marco: Okay, so, it’s gonna be a cold day.

Erica: Yes. Now, we can obviously change the adjective, right? So, it’s gonna be a hot one; it’s gonna be a long one – it’s gonna be a long day.

Marco: Alright.

Erica: But the one can mean anything.

Marco: Okay, so, it can be a day, it can be, uh, an event.

Erica: Meeting.

Marco: Okay.

Erica: A project. So, for example, if we’re going to a meeting, I might say “hey Marco, this is gonna be a hard one”.

Marco: Okay, so, the one represents the meeting. This is gonna be a hard meeting.

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: Alright, I think this is a very good phrase and it’s very commonly used. So, why don’t we listen to some more examples of how we can use it’s gonna be a something one?

Man: Temperatures are forecasted to hit 37 degrees today; it’s going to be a hot one, folks!

男: 据预报今天气温将高达 37 度，各位，今天可真是个酷暑天啊！（注：这里的 37 度指的是摄氏度，而美国预报里通常用华氏度）

Woman: It’s only 8 a.m. and I’ve got a hundred e-mails already; it’s gonna be a long one today!

女: 才早上 8 点我就收到上百封邮件了，今天注定是漫长煎熬的一天！

Man: I haven’t studied at all for the exam; it’s gonna be a tough one.

男: 我考试复习一点都没准备，这次考试绝对不好过（是个硬茬）。

Marco: Okay, so, some great examples and I think it’s time for us to listen to this dialogue again and now we can understand all these words and phrases that we’ve just talked about.

Erica: Okay, so, we know that in English speaking countries the weather is always, always, always a great subject of conversation for small talk, right?

Marco: Exactly, if you ever wanna talk to somebody or start a conversation, the weather is always a number one topic.

Erica: Yeah, and we actually have a phrase in this dialogue that’d be great for starting a conversation like, for example, imagine if you lived here in Utah, and you were, you know, wanting to start a conversation with someone, you could say “it sure is a cold one today, isn’t it?”

Marco: Exactly, that’s a great way of starting a conversation and English speaking people love to talk about the weather as you say.

Erica: That’s right, so, guys, if you have any questions about weather vocabulary or if you wanna practice talking about the weather, come to our website at englishpod.com.

Marco: Right, Erica and I are always there to answer any questions or doubts you may have and also if you have any stories about crazy weather maybe in the countries you’re from, let us know.

Erica: So, thanks for downloading you guys and until next time… Good bye!

Marco: Bye!