Weather and Climate

1. Weather vs. Climate (Don't mix these up)

• Weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere — what's happening today or this week (sunny, rainy, windy).
• Climate is the long-term pattern over decades — the typical weather of a region (the Czech Republic has a temperate continental climate).

2. Basic Vocabulary

• Sunny, cloudy, overcast (zataženo), partly cloudy.
• Rain: drizzle (mrholení), shower (přeháňka), downpour (liják), thunderstorm (bouřka).
• Snow: snowfall, blizzard (vánice), sleet (plískanice), hail (kroupy).
• Wind: breeze (vánek), gale (vichřice), gust (náraz větru).
• Temperature: mild, warm, hot, scorching (spalující); cool, cold, freezing, bitterly cold.
• Visibility: fog (mlha), mist (opar), haze (zamlžení).
• Humidity (vlhkost), air pressure (tlak vzduchu), dew point (rosný bod).

3. The Four Seasons (Useful filler for the exam)

• Spring (March–May): the weather gets warmer, days get longer, flowers bloom, trees come into leaf. Often unpredictable — sudden showers and changeable temperatures.
• Summer (June–August): hot, sunny, school holidays, thunderstorms in the afternoon. Recent summers have brought heatwaves (vlny veder) and drought (sucho).
• Autumn (September–November): leaves change colour (red, orange, yellow) and fall. Cooler, foggy mornings, more rain. Czech autumn is famous for "babí léto" (Indian summer).
• Winter (December–February): cold, snow, frost (mráz), frozen lakes. Days are short. Christmas and skiing season.

4. Climate Zones

• Tropical: hot all year, heavy rainfall, rainforests (Brazil, Indonesia).
• Subtropical / Mediterranean: hot dry summers, mild wet winters (Spain, Italy, California).
• Temperate: four distinct seasons (Central Europe, UK, most of USA).
• Continental: big difference between summer and winter, far from the sea (Russia, central Canada).
• Polar / Arctic: extremely cold, ice and tundra (Antarctica, Greenland).
• Desert: very dry, big day/night temperature swings (Sahara, Arabian Peninsula).

5. Czech Republic Climate (Realia connection)

• Temperate continental climate — four clear seasons.
• Average summer temperatures around 20–25 °C, winters around -5 to +5 °C.
• Annual rainfall around 500–700 mm.
• Recent changes: hotter summers, milder winters with less snow, more extreme weather events — droughts, flash floods, windstorms.
• Major floods: 1997 (Morava, eastern Bohemia), 2002 (Vltava, Prague), 2013, 2024.

6. Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters

• Flood (povodeň) – overflow of rivers; flash flood (bleskové povodně).
• Drought (sucho) – long period without rain, dries up rivers and soil.
• Heatwave – several days of unusually high temperatures.
• Hurricane / typhoon / cyclone – tropical storms with very strong wind (different names by region).
• Tornado – rotating column of air, common in the US "Tornado Alley".
• Blizzard – heavy snowstorm with strong wind.
• Wildfire / bushfire – uncontrolled fires (Australia, California, Greece).
• Avalanche (lavina) – mass of snow falling down a mountain.
• Earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption – not strictly weather but often grouped together.

7. Climate Change (The Big Topic)

This is the part that gets you the most speaking time.

• Global warming: average global temperatures are rising due to the greenhouse effect — gases like CO₂, methane and water vapour trap heat in the atmosphere.
• Main causes: burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), deforestation, intensive farming, industrial production.
• Consequences: melting glaciers and polar ice, rising sea levels, more extreme weather, disrupted ocean currents (the Gulf Stream is weakening), loss of biodiversity, climate refugees.
• The Paris Agreement (2015): international deal to limit warming to well below 2 °C, ideally 1.5 °C, compared to pre-industrial levels.
• What individuals can do: reduce flying, eat less meat, use public transport, save energy, recycle, buy less fast fashion.

8. Weather Forecasting (IT connection)

If you want to bring it back to your specialisation:

• Modern weather forecasts rely on huge amounts of data from satellites, weather stations, radar and weather balloons.
• Supercomputers run complex atmospheric models to predict weather days ahead.
• AI and machine learning are now used to improve short-term forecasts.
• Apps and websites (Yr.no, Windy.com, ČHMÚ) make this information available in real time.

How to use this at the exam:

Start with the difference between weather and climate. Then describe a typical Czech year through the four seasons (this fills time naturally). Move to climate change — the big global issue — and finish with either the IT angle (supercomputers, forecasts) or with examples of extreme weather in the Czech Republic (the 2002 Prague floods are a classic).