Weather and season vocabulary

Weather and humidity vocabulary

Weather and humidity vocabulary is used to describe the condition of the sky, air, wind, temperature, and level of humidity. In the N3 exam, what is usually tested is not the meaning of a single word alone, but (1) verbs or adjectives that match weather nouns, (2) the readings and writing of kanji that sound the same, and (3) differences in meaning between similar words.

1. Weather collocations (noun + fixed verb) Each weather phenomenon has a fixed verb partner. Rain and snow 「雨(あめ, rain)」「雪(ゆき, snow)」 are paired with 「降る(ふる, to fall)」, while wind 「風(かぜ, wind)」 is paired with 「吹く(ふく, to blow)」. These pairs must be memorized as one unit because wind does not 降る and rain does not 吹く.

• 雨が降る(あめがふる, rain falls) — 例) 夕方から急に雨が降り出した。
• 風が吹く(かぜがふく, wind blows) — 例) 海のほうから冷たい風が吹いている。
• 風が強い / 風が強くなる(かぜがつよい / かぜがつよくなる, the wind is strong / the wind becomes strong) — 例) 午後になって風が強くなってきた。
• 吹き荒れる(ふきあれる, to blow with great force and cause damage) — 例) 嵐の夜は風が吹き荒れていた。
• 〜そうです — used for information that is heard or predicted from another source, such as a weather forecast. 例) 週末は雨が続くそうです。

2. Strong winds and typhoons

• 台風(たいふう, typhoon) — the reading is specifically たいふう (台 たい, 風 ふう), not だいふう or たいぶう. 例) 台風が九州に近づいている。
• 暴風(ぼうふう, violent wind / storm) — read ぼうふう, not ほうふう (豊富 ほうふ, abundant).
• 強風(きょうふう, strong wind) — often appears together with 吹き荒れる.
• 〜おそれがある (there is a risk of / there is a possibility of) — expresses a possible bad outcome that has not yet certainly occurred. Its synonym is 「可能性がある(かのうせいがある, there is a possibility)」. 例) 明日は道路が凍るおそれがある。

3. Temperature, humidity, and water vapor (nouns)

• 気温(きおん, air temperature) — read きおん. 気温が上がる (to rise) is the opposite of 気温が下がる (to fall). 気温が高くなる has the same meaning as 気温が上がる.
• 湿度(しつど, humidity) — 湿 is read しつ (not じつ), and 度 is read ど. The common patterns are 湿度が高い (high) and 湿度が低い (low). 例) 湿度が低いので、のどが乾きやすい。
• 湿気(しっけ, dampness or moisture that is felt) — 湿気が多い/少ない. The difference from 湿度 is that 湿度 measures the amount of water vapor in the air, while 湿気 is the general dampness that people feel.
• 暑さ(あつさ, heat of the weather) — refers to the heat of the air in the weather. It sounds the same but has different meanings: 熱さ(あつさ, heat of an object) and 厚さ(あつさ, thickness).
• 梅雨(つゆ, rainy season) — a period with high 湿気 and long-lasting rain.