What's the weather like today where you live?

In my Conversation Club meeting yesterday, four of us were wearing winter clothes and one member was experiencing hot summer weather! She's in the southern hemisphere!

Many parts of the UK have snow and ice at the moment but there isn't any here. There's a storm on the way though, and there are amber weather warnings where I live, so I'm expecting bad weather over the next few days.

Weather warnings are for things like heavy rain, strong winds, snow and ice. Yellow is the least serious warning, then amber, then red for the most dangerous weather.

Here's some winter weather vocabulary for you:

• hail (n/v) = balls of ice that fall like rain

• frost (n) / frosty (adj) = when small white ice crystals form on surfaces

• sleet (n/v) = when snow and rain fall together (UK English)

• freezing (adj) = extremely cold

• frozen (adj) = when something has turned to ice (or from liquid to solid)

• freeze (v) = to turn from water to ice

• melt (v) = to turn from ice to water

• slush (n) = partially melted snow

• thaw (v) = when the weather gets warmer and the ice starts to melt

• slippery (adj) = when the ground is slippery, it's easy to fall over

• icicle (n) = a long hanging piece of ice

• mist (n) / misty (adj) = when there is a cloud of water droplets in the air

• fog (n) / foggy (adj) = like mist but worse making it difficult to see far