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British Weather Vocabulary – Upper-Intermediate/Advanced

Average: 4.4 (17 votes)

Read this short story about the British weather.

I left the house with a brolly in my bag because the weather forecast had predicted light showers and, sure enough, as soon as I got outside I felt drizzle. I put up my brolly and hurried along, but there was a huge gust of wind that blew it inside out. As I struggled to fix the brolly the drizzle started to turn into a shower. I ran under a nearby bus stop to take shelter and the heavens opened, it started pouring down, really bucketing down. My brolly was beyond repair so I threw it in a nearby bin and just sat and watched the downpour. After about five minutes it stopped and the sun came out so I carried on walking, but after about a minute it started spitting again and I had to shelter in a shop. This time it was just a quick shower and when I went back outside it was mild with a warm breeze. However as I continued along the street a car run through a huge puddle in the road and splashed me, I was soaked from head to toe.

Match these definitions to the highlighted words in the story.

Lesson by Sam, teacher at EC London English School

  • 1. Light rain:
  • 2. Rain for a short period:
  • 3. Umbrella (slang):
  • 4. Very wet/covered in water:
  • 5. Heavy rain (phrasal verb):
  • 6. One strong action of the wind:
  • 7. Heavy rain (noun):
  • 8. Light rain at the beginning of a shower or downpour:
  • 9. Light wind:
  • 10. Body of water in the street:
  • 11. Rained heavily (idiom):