Weather in Japanese: sky, temperature and seasons
In Japan people talk about the weather all the time: いい天気ですね, “nice day, isn't it?”, opens more conversations than any other sentence. And with four distinct seasons, a rainy season and typhoons, there is always something to say.
Here are the words for the sky, temperature and seasons, with kanji, reading and rōmaji, and the phrases to talk about them.
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What the weather is like
Almost all of them are nouns: to say “it's raining today”, 今日は雨です, literally “today is rain”, is enough.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 天気 | てんき | tenki | weather |
| 晴れ | はれ | hare | clear, sunny |
| 曇り | くもり | kumori | cloudy |
| 雨 | あめ | ame | rain |
| 雪 | ゆき | yuki | snow |
| 風 | かぜ | kaze | wind |
| 雷 | かみなり | kaminari | thunder, lightning |
| 台風 | たいふう | taifū | typhoon |
| 虹 | にじ | niji | rainbow |
| 霧 | きり | kiri | fog |
Hot and cold
They are い-adjectives and work on their own: 暑い! already means “it's hot!”, no verb needed.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 暑い | あつい | atsui | hot (weather) |
| 寒い | さむい | samui | cold (weather) |
| 暖かい | あたたかい | atatakai | warm, mild |
| 涼しい | すずしい | suzushii | cool |
| 蒸し暑い | むしあつい | mushiatsui | hot and humid |
Seasons
Four seasons, plus one most of us don't have: 梅雨, the early-summer rainy season.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 春 | はる | haru | spring |
| 夏 | なつ | natsu | summer |
| 秋 | あき | aki | autumn |
| 冬 | ふゆ | fuyu | winter |
| 梅雨 | つゆ | tsuyu | rainy season |
| 季節 | きせつ | kisetsu | season |
Talking about the weather
The phrases you will hear in the lift, at the konbini and in forecasts. The final ね asks for agreement: “isn't it?”.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| いい天気ですね | いいてんきですね | ii tenki desu ne | Nice day, isn't it? |
| 暑いですね | あついですね | atsui desu ne | It's hot, isn't it? |
| 雨が降っています | あめがふっています | ame ga futte imasu | It's raining |
| 雪が降りそうです | ゆきがふりそうです | yuki ga furisō desu | It looks like snow |
| 明日は晴れるでしょう | あしたははれるでしょう | ashita wa hareru deshō | It will be clear tomorrow |
The weather is the national icebreaker
Commenting on the weather is the standard way to start a conversation, with a neighbor, a cashier, a customer: 暑いですね, 寒くなりましたね (“it's got cold, hasn't it?”). Even formal letters and emails open with a line about the season. You don't need to say anything original: you just need to say it.
暑い, 熱い and 厚い: three “atsui”
They sound the same but are three words: 暑い is hot air, 熱い is something hot to the touch (tea, a bath), 厚い means “thick” (a book). The same goes for cold: 寒い is the air, 冷たい is something cold to the touch.
Rain “falls”, wind “blows”
Rain and snow take the verb 降る (furu, to fall): 雨が降る. Wind takes 吹く (fuku, to blow): 風が吹く. A sky clearing up is 晴れる (hareru), which gives 晴れ. In forecasts you will hear でしょう, “probably”: 明日は雨でしょう.
Four seasons, plus the rains and typhoons
Japanese people are proud of their four seasons, and each has its rituals: cherry blossoms in spring, fireworks in summer, red leaves in autumn. Between June and July comes 梅雨, the rainy season, in almost the whole country except Hokkaidō; between August and October the 台風, typhoons, pass through.
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Frequently asked questions
天気はどうですか (tenki wa dō desu ka), or 今日の天気は? (kyō no tenki wa?) for “what's the weather like today?”. The weather forecast is 天気予報 (tenki yohō).
暑い (atsui) and 寒い (samui), or 暑いです and 寒いです to be polite. No extra verb is needed: the adjective alone is already a sentence.
Both are read atsui. 暑い is hot weather (“it's hot today”), 熱い the temperature of a thing or a drink (“the tea is hot”).
梅雨 (tsuyu): about six weeks of frequent rain between June and July, in almost all of Japan except Hokkaidō. In Okinawa it comes earlier, between May and June.
雨が降っています (ame ga futte imasu), or more simply 雨です. For “it's snowing” you say 雪が降っています.