Episode 0266

Hello everyone and welcome to Englishpod. My name is Marco.

That's right. So obviously, we have seen the news and sometimes on the news we have the weather report. So today we're going to learn all about that weather report in English.

So let's check out today's dialogue and we'll be back in a moment to talk about the words and phrases that those weather forecasters used.

And those are today's top stories. Now, let's go to John for the weather.

John, what does the forecast look like for our weekend travelers?

I'm afraid we're in for a rough weekend, Mary. There's a storm system moving through the East Coast.

It will be drizzling all day today and there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms this evening.

It will be warm and humid all weekend. In the Midwest, expect strong winds and a low of around 40 degrees.

That's pretty chilly for the summer. Will it rain on Saturday?

Unfortunately, yes. It will be clear early Saturday morning, but there is a high chance of showers and thunderstorms later in the day.

There is a severe thunderstorm warning for some parts of the Southeast. Folks in those areas might see some hail and flooding, especially in areas that have been experiencing record high rainfalls.

It gets better on Sunday though. The storm system's moving east and the skies will clear up at night.

It will still be rather cool with highs in the low 50s. The West Coast will be experiencing some unusually chilly weather, but at least the sun will come out.

I advise weekend travelers to be careful, especially while driving. Back to you, Mary.

Alright, we're back. So apparently they're not going to have great weather this weekend and they actually started with an interesting word.

And actually the commentator started with asking the weatherman John, what does the forecast look like for our weekend?

Okay, so the word here forecast is very very important because it describes this part of the newscast. A forecast is basically a prediction or a description of the future weather situation.

That's right. So we're talking about the weather forecast. Now, it's very interesting because we can also use that in in business, for example, in budgets. You can say what is the financial forecast of the company?

Alright, so you can't know what will happen, but you can predict it and that's what a forecast is.

That's right. So we're talking about the weather forecast and the weatherman said that, well, there are some storms coming and it will be drizzling all day.

Okay, so to drizzle is a verb and it's like the verb to rain, except it's less by degrees, so it's very light rain. Yeah, it's kind of like if I spray you with with water from a spray can or something, it's like drizzle. It's just little dots of water. It's not like you're getting wet.

You don't really have the normal heavy raindrops, you just have a little bit of of water coming down.

But it's annoying because do you bring your umbrella? Do you leave your umbrella? So drizzling is a kind of rain that's very, very light.

That's right. Alright, so it's going to drizzle all day and the weatherman also said that we might have some thunderstorms.

Okay, so thunderstorms are very different. Thunderstorms are a kind of storm where there is thunder. So thunder is the loud noises when there's lightning.

Oh, lightning. Okay. So lightning is like the flash that you get from the sky and thunder is the hard sound that comes after. The boom.

Yeah, so remember light, lightning. Light is the light that comes down from the sky, lightning. And thunderstorms are just those loud noises that the lightning makes.

So usually with thunderstorms, we have very heavy rain.

That's right. And uh and that's why it's different from drizzling, which is very light.

Okay. Now we're talking about water, we have drizzle, we have thunderstorm. Now what about a shower? Because the weatherman said there is a high chance of showers.

A shower when you wash yourself is water coming down on top of you. Well, in this case, it's a rain shower. So it's rain that's happening.

Okay, so it's uh rain water that's coming down, very similar to the shower that you take in the morning.

The difference though, is that a shower is a noun and to rain is a verb. So it will rain tomorrow or we expect showers tomorrow. Both mean the same thing.

Alright, very good. And uh well, talking about showers and thunderstorms, there's also another type of water that falls from the sky. This is called hail.

Okay, so hail is difficult to describe because it's like ice, but it's not really. It's just usually hard, almost like marbles, like hard balls of um of rain that come down. So it's not snow. It hurts when it hits you. Sometimes it's very big, sometimes it's very small, but it's heavy, hard things that come out of the clouds.

Yeah, so just think about it. It's very, very similar to ice. It's a small pieces of ice coming down from the from the sky.

So that's hail. But obviously, very different from snow because as we said, it's hard. Snow is very soft.

Yes.

And uh well, with this type of weather going on in the weekend, the uh commentator said, wow, that certainly sounds like a dreary Saturday.

Okay, dreary is a great word to describe it. So as you can tell, it's going to rain. It's dreary is not a good thing. It's not a happy thing. So something is dreary when it's not very exciting. It looks like it'll be dull or sad or boring or dark.

Now, can you describe a person like this as well?

Boring. Yeah.

Okay, so that's what it means. Something that's uh boring, not very exciting or very calm.

But also dark. There's a dark element to it because something is dreary, you know, there's no sunshine, there's no light, there's no optimism. It's very.

So you can say it's a dreary day.

Yeah, very dreary day today. No light, no sunshine.

Okay, very good. Uh we've taken a look at a lot of vocab there. Why don't we review what we've just learned and listen to the dialogue again.

And those are today's top stories. Now, let's go to John for the weather.

John, what does the forecast look like for our weekend travelers?

I'm afraid we're in for a rough weekend, Mary. There's a storm system moving through the East Coast.

It will be drizzling all day today and there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms this evening.

It will be warm and humid all weekend. In the Midwest, expect strong winds and a low of around 40 degrees.

That's pretty chilly for the summer. Will it rain on Saturday?

Unfortunately, yes. It will be clear early Saturday morning, but there is a high chance of showers and thunderstorms later in the day.

There is a severe thunderstorm warning for some parts of the Southeast. Folks in those areas might see some hail and flooding, especially in areas that have been experiencing record high rainfalls.

It gets better on Sunday though. The storm system's move east and the skies will clear up at night.

It will still be rather cool with highs in the low 50s. The West Coast will be experiencing some unusually chilly weather, but at least the sun will come out.

I advise weekend travelers to be careful, especially while driving. Back to you, Mary.

Alright, we're back. So now we're going to talk a little bit about some phrases that we've chosen for you on fluency builder.

So when we're talking about forecasts, remember that we're talking about things that aren't certain. We have to explain that uh there is a possibility of rain or a possibility of sunshine. And usually, in in the weather report, they will use percentages to describe how likely something is to happen.

That's right. Uh the weatherman said there is a 60% chance of thunderstorms.

Okay, so 60% is not very likely, but it's also not unlikely. It means that it might happen that it rains.

That's right. So as you said, the it's a way to measure what the probabilities are because imagine if the weatherman says it might rain tomorrow. You're like, well, maybe it really will or maybe it's very unlikely that it won't or we don't really know.

Exactly. So for example, if the weatherman says there's a 95% chance of rain tomorrow, do you bring your umbrella?

Yes.

What if he says there's a 5% chance of rain tomorrow?

No.

No. So you have to think about the probability. 60%, it's maybe half and half, but 95%, it's very likely to happen.

That's right. And he also mentioned there's a high chance of uh thunderstorms or maybe you can say there's a low chance of hail.

Right, so he's basically saying, he or she is basically saying, you know, it's possible that this will happen or it's it's not likely this will happen. They're just they're trying to help you out. They can't say this will happen because they don't know.

Okay, so the word for probability here, the keyword is chance. There is a good chance that it will rain. So chance is probability.

Right, so, for example, what's the chance it will rain tomorrow? Well, there's a high chance.

Okay, very good. Okay, and now when we talk about the degrees or the uh how warm or cold it is.

So so we express it in Fahrenheit in some countries or in other countries in centigrade. Here we talk about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. But the weatherman also says highs and lows. There's a a low of around 40 degrees. What does he mean a low?

This is a really important part of the the forecast because you need to know will you have to bring a coat tomorrow, is it going to be hot or cold? And so you think about a day, um usually during the day at noon or 1:00 in the afternoon, it's the hottest. But at night, it's the coldest. And so the low refers to the lowest temperature and the high refers to the highest temperature. So, for example, in the fall, maybe the highs are 60 degrees, but the lows are 40, so you should bring a coat.

Okay.

Means at night, it'll be 40 and during the day, it'll be 60.

Okay, so we're talking about the highs are the highest temperatures or the highest number that we'll get and the lows is the lowest. So the weatherman will commonly say, tomorrow we'll experience a high of 32 degrees and a low of 25.

Right. So, it's very easy to understand that um the temperature during the day will be between these two numbers.

Right. Very good. Okay. And for our last phrase, the weatherman also said that there is a severe thunderstorm warning for some parts of the Southeast.

Alright, so, Marco, this is a really key phrase because it is um it's telling people about potential danger. You know, a thunderstorm can be very dangerous. So you want to stay inside. So a severe thunderstorm warning, severe means very, very serious. Um, it's something you should pay attention to.

That's right. But now, the interesting thing is that we can change the noun in this case thunderstorm and uh we can talk about, for example, a severe tornado warning.

Alright, so if there's a severe tornado warning, then I really have to pay attention to the the weather and be careful not to go outside. Or even a severe flood warning. You need to know that the streets might become flooded and prepare.

So they're saying that there is a very high probability that this might happen, so they're warning you to take precaution.

Alright, so, pay attention to that last one and uh we're going to listen to today's dialogue one more time. We'll be back in a moment to talk a little bit more about the weather.

And those are today's top stories. Now, let's go to John for the weather.

John, what does the forecast look like for our weekend travelers?

I'm afraid we're in for a rough weekend, Mary. There's a storm system moving through the East Coast.

It will be drizzling all day today and there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms this evening.

It will be warm and humid all weekend. In the Midwest, expect strong winds and a low of around 40 degrees.

That's pretty chilly for the summer. Will it rain on Saturday?

Unfortunately, yes. It will be clear early Saturday morning, but there is a high chance of showers and thunderstorms later in the day.

There is a severe thunderstorm warning for some parts of the Southeast. Folks in those areas might see some hail and flooding, especially in areas that have been experiencing record high rainfalls.

It gets better on Sunday though. The storm system's move east and the skies will clear up at night.

It will still be rather cool with highs in the low 50s. The West Coast will be experiencing some unusually chilly weather, but at least the sun will come out.

I advise weekend travelers to be careful, especially while driving. Back to you, Mary.

Alright, so talking about the weather, it always seems like the weatherman is always wrong.

Always, it's like it's like the opposite of what should happen. That's right. But you know, you can't blame them because all they have is a computer and some sensors and they have to guess about the weather and and help people figure out what to do.

Have you ever experienced anything severe like a like a hard thunderstorm or maybe a tornado or something like this?

I have actually because I'm from Chicago and in America, the middle of the country is called the Tornado Alley. That means it's a piece of land where tornadoes are very common. And so in the fall and in the spring, we often have tornadoes and I've been in a couple tornadoes myself.

Oh, wow. Have you seen them?

Yes.

They're is it amazing to see?

They're very scary. You're always running inside and locking yourself in the basement. Uh it's very important to protect yourself in a in a tornado because it's um it's very dangerous around the area of the tornado because the wind is so strong that trucks and cars and telephone poles and big, big, heavy objects can fly through the air and hurt people and that's that's how most of the damage happens.

Okay, so this is interesting because a tornado is also considered a natural disaster. But it is a it's something it's a weather phenomenon, whereas earthquakes are a natural disaster, but it's not part of the weather.

No, yeah, you're right. It's not something that it sweeps in and it leaves. Like a flood, for example, all of the rain will come down and it will create a flood. An earthquake is a natural disaster that's not weather related.

That's right. Okay, interesting thing. So maybe uh some of our uh listeners that live in a very cold area have experienced a heavy snowstorm.

Like a blizzard.

Like a blizzard or maybe people in a tropical area have experienced a hurricane. So let us know if you've ever been in one of these weather related phenomena and uh also if you have any comments or questions, we're always at Englishpod.com.

The English Podcast Audio Review

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Scared.

Afraid.

A light fall of rain.

Drizzle.

Fall of rain accompanied by lightning and thunder.

Thunderstorm.

Probability.

Chance.

Rain that is frozen into chunks of ice.

Hail.

Let's try that faster.

Rain that is frozen into chunks of ice.

Hail.

Probability.

Chance.

A light fall of rain.

Drizzle.

Scared.

Afraid.

Fall of rain accompanied by lightning and thunder.

Thunderstorm.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Afraid.

The project is due tomorrow, but he just gave it to us this morning. I'm afraid we're in for a long night.

Afraid.

I'm sorry, I'm afraid you misunderstood me.

Afraid.

I'm afraid that I can't make it tonight. I've made other plans.

Drizzle.

It's drizzling outside. So you should take your umbrella when you go out.

Drizzle.

It's not raining hard. Just a light drizzle.

Drizzle.

I like to drizzle some maple syrup on my pancakes.

Thunderstorm.

We plan to have a picnic in the park, but the weather report said there would be a thunderstorm today.

Thunderstorm.

My little sister is terrified of lightning. She always cries during the thunderstorms.

Thunderstorm.

It's dangerous to go out with an umbrella during the thunderstorm.

Hail.

There's a 70% chance of rain today. So it might not be the best day to go to the beach.

Hail.

You have a high chance of getting the job. The boss seems to like you.

Hail.

If you are careful and follow the rules, you have a very small chance of hurting yourself rock climbing.

Hail.

There is a chance that it will hail today, so we should stay inside.

Hail.

The last time it hailed, the roof of my car was badly damaged.

Hail.

It's hailing really badly outside. The hail is the size of tennis balls.