Weather Small Talk: Hace, Está, Hay and When to Use Each
Master the three weather verbs, complain about the heat like a local, grade the rain from drizzle to deluge — and never say estoy caliente by accident.
Key phrases
¡Qué calor hace hoy! No se puede ni respirar.
It's so hot today! You can hardly breathe.
Está lloviendo a cántaros, mejor quedamos otro día.
It's bucketing down, better if we meet another day.
Hace un día estupendo, ¿damos un paseo?
It's a gorgeous day, shall we go for a walk?
Hay una ola de calor esta semana, cuarenta grados en Sevilla.
There's a heatwave this week, forty degrees in Seville.
Tengo mucho calor, ¿ponemos el aire?
I'm really hot, shall we put the air con on?
Está chispeando, no hace falta paraguas.
It's only spitting, no need for an umbrella.
Hay mucha niebla en la carretera, conduce con cuidado.
There's a lot of fog on the road, drive carefully.
Vaya frío que hace esta mañana.
It's freezing this morning.
Mañana va a diluviar, según el tiempo.
It's going to pour down tomorrow, according to the forecast.
Está nublado, pero no creo que llueva.
It's cloudy, but I don't think it'll rain.
Estamos a treinta y cinco grados, una barbaridad.
It's thirty-five degrees, which is outrageous.
Hace un viento que te mueres.
It's insanely windy.
Three Verbs, One Forecast
English handles all weather with one verb: it is hot, it is raining, there is fog. Spanish splits the job three ways, and picking the wrong one is the fastest way to sound like a textbook. The good news: each verb has a clear lane, and once you see the pattern you’ll never mix them up.
Hace, Está, Hay — Decoded
- Hace + noun — for weather you feel: hace calor (hot), hace frío (cold), hace sol (sunny), hace viento (windy), hace fresco (chilly), hace buen/mal tiempo, hace un día estupendo. Literally “it makes heat” — don’t translate, just absorb.
- Está + gerund or adjective — for what the sky is doing or its current state: está lloviendo (raining), está nevando (snowing), está nublado (cloudy), está despejado (clear).
- Hay + noun — for phenomena that exist out there: hay niebla (fog), hay tormenta (a storm), hay humedad, hay una ola de calor (heatwave).
Quick self-test: hot day? Hace calor. Raining? Está lloviendo. Fog? Hay niebla. That covers ninety percent of every weather conversation you’ll ever have.
Complaining Is the Point
Natives don’t report the weather, they react to it. The workhorses are ¡qué…! and ¡vaya…!: ¡Qué calor!, ¡Qué frío hace!, ¡Vaya calor!, ¡Menudo viento! Tack on hace and you upgrade from correct to convincing: ¡qué calor hace hoy! For maximum drama there’s que te mueres: hace un frío que te mueres. If it all gets too much, a resigned vaya tela covers any meteorological outrage.
Rain comes in grades, and natives grade it precisely:
- Chispear — to spit; barely rain. Also caen cuatro gotas.
- Llover — plain raining: está lloviendo.
- Diluviar — to pour, biblical register: está diluviando.
- Llover a cántaros — to rain by the jugful; the Spanish “raining cats and dogs”.
The Trap: Estoy Caliente
Here it is, the mistake every English speaker makes exactly once. Weather uses hace, but your body uses tener: tengo calor (I’m hot), tengo frío (I’m cold). Say estoy caliente and you’ve just announced that you’re aroused, not warm. Its cousin estoy frío is no better — that describes a body gone cold, not a person feeling chilly. It’s not a small nuance; it’s a different conversation entirely. Drill it now: hace calor outside, tengo calor inside your shirt, and estoy caliente only if you genuinely mean it.
Pro Tip
Weather is Spain’s universal small-talk key — with the neighbour in the lift, the pharmacist, the stranger at the bus stop. You don’t need a full sentence; a well-timed ¡qué calor!, ¿eh? with eye contact does the job, and the standard reply is agreement plus escalation: Sí, sí, una barbaridad. Nothing marks you as a guiri faster than answering a rhetorical weather complaint with an actual forecast. Complain along — that’s the whole game.
Weather talk opens the door — our Speak Spanish Like a Native book series covers everything that comes after.