In a previous lesson I talked about changing your Facebook into Japanese so you can have exposure to the language every day.

Something else I do every day is check the weather. In Kyoto, the weather is famous for turning on a dime; right now it is boiling hot during the day and so humid at night you can wring your shirt out. But it’s OK, it will get better soon... in like, November >.<

I have a bookmark on my computer that brings me to the tenki.jp weather page. 天気（てんき）means “weather.”
If you live in Japan, I highly recommend checking this site out; it’s simple and much more reliable than weather.com.

Even if you don’t live in Japan, switching your main weather site to Japanese could be a huge help. If it’s something you look at every day, you will soon get used to all the words and phrases that describe the weather. For Americans, it is a bonus because while we are learning Japanese, we can also learn Celsius, which was a huge challenge for me when I moved here!

Here is a typical weather page on tenki.jp:

The top blue banner states the city and ward, along with the date and time:

京都市左京区のピンポイント天気
きょうと　し　さきょう　く　の　ぴんぽいんと　てんき
Kyoto City, Sakyo Ward’s pinpoint weather.
Literally : “Kyoto + city + Sakyo + ward + の + pinpoint + weather”

Next the four orange buttons on the top:

今日明日の天気
きょうあす　の　てんき
Today and tomorrow’s weather

３時間天気
さん　じかん　てんき
Three hour weather

１時間天気
いち　じかん　てんき
One hour weather

１０日間天気
とおかかん　てんき
Ten day weather

The one I clicked on shows the weather in 3 hour increments; under the two headings; 午前（ごぜん）meaning “morning” and 午後（ごご） meaning “afternoon.”

After that, the black columns on the left show:

日付（ひづけ）Date
時間（じかん）Time
天気（てんき）Weather
気温（きおん）Temperature (in Celsius)
降水確率（こうすいかくりつ）Chance of precipitation
降水量（こうすいりょう）Precipitation Amount
湿度（しつど）Humidity
風向（ふうこう）Wind Direction
風速（ふうそく）Wind Speed

Next, underneath the little illustrations, it gives a simple description of the weather.

晴れ（はれ）Sunny
曇り（くもり）Cloudy
雨（あめ）Rain
Note: There are also rain descriptions such as 弱雨 “light rain” (using the kanjifor weak), and 強雨 “strong rain.”

Lastly, underneath the Wind Direction row, it has the kanji for the direction:

北（きた）North
南（みなみ）South
東（ひがし）East
西（にし）West

Note: When the kanji for the cardinal directions are in a kanji compound, you will use the 音読み（おんよみ） reading. 北＝ほく、南＝なん、東＝とう、and 西＝せい.

So when listing two separate directions, the readings become:

北北西
ほくほくせい
North-Northwest

東南東
とうなんとう
East-Southeast

So that is the weather forecast on tenki.jp. It is pretty straightforward and simple.
Now that you know what the weather will be like, you probably want to tell your friends. Here are some simple ways to talk about the weather:

今日の天気予報は雨だ。
きょう　の　てんき　よほう　は　あめ　だ。
Today’s weather forecast is rain.
Literally: “today + の + weather + forecast + は + rain + だ”

天気予報では明日は晴れです。
てんき　よほう　では　あした　は　はれ　です。
The weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny.
Literally: “weather + forecast + では + tomorrow + は + sunny +です”

天気予報によると来週は雪になる。
てんき　よほう　によると　らいしゅう　は　ゆき　になる。
According to the weather forecast, it will snow next week.
Literally: “weather + forecast +によると+ next week + は + snow + become”

A simple lesson today, but learning weather words is incredibly useful in everyday life. I am pretty sure the subject of weather has come up in every single conversation I have ever had with a Japanese person. So keep checking the weather and start practicing talking about it in Japanese; believe me, you will use this stuff!

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This lesson was written by Cassy L., a guest contributor: