Weather in Catalan

In Brief

To ask what the weather is like, say Quin temps fa? Catalan commonly answers with fa plus a weather expression (fa sol, fa fred, fa vent), but it uses weather verbs for rain and snow (plou, neva) and estar for a condition such as està ennuvolat.

Overview

Talking about the weather in Catalan is not a matter of translating English “it is” word for word. English uses an empty subject it in “it is cold” and “it is raining.” Catalan normally has no equivalent word in these expressions: it says fa fred (“it makes/does cold”) and plou (“rains”). These are impersonal expressions, meaning that no particular person or thing performs the action.

This is an A1 topic because a small set of patterns lets you handle everyday conversations immediately: deciding what to wear, commenting on the day, understanding a forecast, or discussing plans. The key is to learn each expression with its verb. Do not memorize fred only as “cold”; memorize the complete phrase fa fred.

The Catalan noun temps can mean either “time” or “weather.” Context normally makes the meaning clear. Quin temps fa? asks about the weather, while No tinc temps means “I don’t have time.” Clock time, by contrast, is hora, as in Quina hora és? (“What time is it?”).

How It Works

Asking about the weather

The standard general question is:

• Quin temps fa? — What is the weather like?
• Quin temps fa avui? — What is the weather like today?
• Quin temps fa a Barcelona? — What is the weather like in Barcelona?

Quin is an interrogative adjective (a question word placed with a noun) meaning “what” or “which.” It agrees with temps, which is masculine singular, so the form is quin. There is no separate Catalan word corresponding to English weather it.

If you want one specific fact, ask a yes-or-no question instead:

• Fa fred? — Is it cold?
• Plou? — Is it raining?
• Està ennuvolat? — Is it cloudy?

Pattern 1: fer + weather expression

The irregular verb fer usually means “to do” or “to make,” but in weather expressions its third-person singular form fa is impersonal. At beginner level, treat fa + weather word as a complete pattern.

Catalan pattern	English meaning	Note
fa sol	it is sunny	Literally uses the noun sol, “sun”
fa fred	it is cold	A general outdoor temperature
fa calor	it is hot	calor is feminine: molta calor
fa vent	it is windy	Literally “there is wind” in this weather pattern
fa bon temps	the weather is good	bo becomes bon before the noun
fa mal temps	the weather is bad	Often suggests unpleasant or stormy conditions
fa vint graus	it is twenty degrees	The scale is normally clear from context

To make these stronger, common forms include molt (“very/a lot”) and molt de:

• Fa molt fred. — It is very cold.
• Fa molta calor. — It is very hot.
• Fa molt de vent. — It is very windy.
• Fa molt de sol. — It is very sunny.

These combinations are idiomatic, so their shape is not perfectly predictable from English. Notice especially molta calor, because calor is a feminine noun, but molt fred. With sol and vent, molt de is usual when the meaning is “a lot of.”

Negation goes directly before the verb:

• No fa fred. — It is not cold.
• No fa gaire vent. — It is not very windy / There is not much wind.

Gaire is especially useful after no: no gaire means “not very much” or “not many.”

Pattern 2: weather verbs

Rain and snow normally use their own verbs rather than fer or estar:

Infinitive	Present form	English meaning
ploure	plou	it rains / it is raining
nevar	neva	it snows / it is snowing
tronar	trona	it thunders / there is thunder
llampegar	llampega	there is lightning / lightning is flashing

An infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb, such as “to rain.” In ordinary weather statements, these verbs are impersonal and appear in the third-person singular. English distinguishes “it rains” from “it is raining,” but Catalan plou can describe rain happening now. You do not need a progressive form to translate every English -ing form.

• Avui plou. — It is raining today.
• A la muntanya neva. — It is snowing in the mountains.
• No plou gaire. — It is not raining much.

Pattern 3: estar + a weather condition

Use estar (“to be”) for the condition or state of the sky or day. A common adjective is ennuvolat (“cloudy”):

• Està ennuvolat. — It is cloudy.
• El cel està ennuvolat. — The sky is cloudy.
• El matí està ennuvolat. — The morning is cloudy.

An adjective is a describing word. When the noun is stated, a Catalan adjective agrees with it in gender and number. Cel and matí are masculine singular, so they take ennuvolat. With a feminine noun, use ennuvolada: La tarda està ennuvolada (“The afternoon is cloudy”).

Other useful conditions include:

• El cel està clar. — The sky is clear.
• El terra està mullat. — The ground is wet.
• El mar està tranquil. — The sea is calm.

The last two describe results or local conditions, not the weather pattern as a whole.

Pattern 4: hi ha + a weather noun

Catalan also uses hi ha, meaning “there is” or “there are,” when the speaker presents a weather phenomenon as something present:

• Hi ha boira. — It is foggy / There is fog.
• Hi ha núvols. — It is cloudy / There are clouds.
• Hi ha una tempesta. — There is a storm.

This is often the most natural match when English uses “there is.” Compare fa vent (“it is windy”) with hi ha molt de vent (“there is a lot of wind”): both are possible, but they package the information differently.

Adding time, place, and season

Time words are flexible, but they often come at the beginning to set the scene:

• Avui fa sol. — Today it is sunny.
• Demà plourà. — It will rain tomorrow.
• A l’hivern fa fred. — It is cold in winter.
• A l’estiu fa calor. — It is hot in summer.
• A Girona hi ha boira. — There is fog in Girona.

Use a before a town, region, or other place in these basic location phrases. Seasons commonly appear with the definite article: a l’hivern, a la primavera, a l’estiu, a la tardor.

Examples in Context

Catalan	English	Note
Quin temps fa avui?	What is the weather like today?	General weather question
Fa molt de sol, però no fa calor.	It is very sunny, but it is not hot.	Sunshine and temperature can differ
Aquest matí fa molt fred.	It is very cold this morning.	fer + fred
A l’agost sol fer calor.	It is usually hot in August.	sol fer means “tends to be/is usually”
Fa vent a la platja.	It is windy at the beach.	fer + vent
Avui plou i no sortirem.	It is raining today, and we will not go out.	Simple present for current rain
A l’hivern neva als Pirineus.	It snows in the Pyrenees in winter.	A recurring seasonal fact
Mira el cel: està molt ennuvolat.	Look at the sky: it is very cloudy.	estar + adjective
A primera hora hi havia boira.	There was fog early in the morning.	Past form of hi ha
Sembla que demà plourà.	It looks as though it will rain tomorrow.	A forecast or prediction
Ara no plou, però fa mal temps.	It is not raining now, but the weather is bad.	Bad weather need not mean current rain
Quants graus fa? — Fa divuit graus.	What is the temperature? — It is eighteen degrees.	Everyday temperature question
La tarda estarà ennuvolada.	The afternoon will be cloudy.	Feminine agreement with tarda
Després de la tempesta, el terra està mullat.	After the storm, the ground is wet.	Resulting condition
No fa gaire vent; podem menjar fora.	It is not very windy; we can eat outside.	no gaire softens the negative

Common Mistakes

Translating English “it is” with és

• Wrong: És fred avui.
• Right: Fa fred avui.
• Why: General outdoor cold uses the impersonal expression fer fred. Catalan does not insert a subject meaning weather “it.” És fred can describe a masculine thing as cold, but it is not the normal weather expression.

Using fer with rain or snow

• Wrong: Fa pluja. / Fa neu.
• Right: Plou. / Neva.
• Why: For the event of rain or snow, Catalan normally uses the verbs ploure and nevar. To name something present, use hi ha: Hi ha pluja prevista (“Rain is forecast”) or Hi ha neu a la muntanya (“There is snow in the mountains”).

Adding an unnecessary pronoun

• Wrong: Ell plou avui.
• Right: Plou avui.
• Why: English weather it has no Catalan equivalent here. Ell means “he” or refers to a masculine noun; it cannot serve as a dummy weather subject.

Confusing temps with hora

• Wrong: Quina hora fa? when asking about the weather
• Right: Quin temps fa?
• Why: Temps means “weather” in this question. Quina hora és? asks for the clock time.

Forgetting agreement with a named noun

• Wrong: La tarda està ennuvolat.
• Right: La tarda està ennuvolada.
• Why: The adjective agrees with tarda, a feminine singular noun. The standalone weather phrase Està ennuvolat commonly uses masculine singular because el cel (“the sky”) or the general situation is understood.

Copying English intensifiers mechanically

• Wrong: Fa molt calor. in careful standard Catalan
• Right: Fa molta calor.
• Why: Calor is a feminine noun, so molt agrees: molta calor. By contrast, learn fa molt fred and fa molt de sol as fixed common combinations.

Usage Notes

In casual conversation, weather remarks often work as easy openings: Quin dia més bonic! (“What a beautiful day!”), Quina calor! (“It’s so hot!”), or Fa un fred! (“It’s so cold!”). These exclamations omit part of a full sentence because the meaning is obvious. They are expressive rather than neutral descriptions.

Catalan often uses the simple present where English prefers a progressive: Plou naturally means “It’s raining.” Està plovent is also correct, but it puts extra focus on the action being in progress. Use it when that focus matters, not as an automatic replacement for every English “is raining.”

For temperatures, Fa vint graus is a common everyday statement. A forecast may use more formal wording such as La temperatura és de vint graus (“The temperature is twenty degrees”) or refer to màximes and mínimes (“highs” and “lows”).

The vocabulary in this article belongs to standard Catalan. Pronunciation and preferred local expressions can vary across Catalan-speaking regions, but the core contrasts—fa fred, plou, neva, hi ha boira—are broadly understood. Also distinguish temps (“weather” at a particular time) from clima (“climate,” the long-term pattern of a place).

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all the tense forms below at A1, but weather language is a useful way to recognize them later.

A forecast naturally uses the future: farà is the future of fer, plourà of ploure, and nevarà of nevar.

• Demà farà sol. — It will be sunny tomorrow.
• A la tarda plourà. — It will rain in the afternoon.
• A les muntanyes nevarà. — It will snow in the mountains.

For background weather in a story, Catalan commonly uses the imperfect, a past form for an ongoing scene or repeated situation:

• Feia fred i plovia. — It was cold and raining.
• Quan era petit, nevava més sovint. — When I was a child, it snowed more often.

To describe a typical tendency, soler + infinitive means “to tend to” or “usually”:

• A la primavera sol ploure. — It usually rains in spring.
• Aquí no sol nevar. — It does not usually snow here.

Weather also appears in open conditions: Si plou, ens quedarem a casa (“If it rains, we’ll stay home”). At a later level, you will meet more cautious forecast language, such as pot ser que plogui (“it may rain”), where plogui is a subjunctive form—a verb form used here because the rain is possible rather than presented as a fact.

Finally, some weather expressions are figurative. Després de la tempesta ve la calma means “After the storm comes the calm,” both literally and as a comment on difficult situations. Learn figurative uses from context rather than assuming every mention of tempesta is a forecast.

Practice Tips

1. Learn verb-and-word chunks. Make four groups on a page: fa (fa fred, fa sol), weather verbs (plou, neva), estar (està ennuvolat), and hi ha (hi ha boira). Sorting phrases is more effective than memorizing isolated nouns.
2. Give a ten-second daily report. Each morning say the day, one condition, and one contrast: Avui fa sol, però fa vent. Add a prediction when ready: Demà plourà.
3. Notice English “it.” Take five English weather sentences and cross out it before translating. Then choose the Catalan pattern from meaning, not from the English verb: It’s cold → Fa fred; It’s raining → Plou.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Ser and Estar — review the basic uses of estar before using it for weather conditions such as està ennuvolat.