Learning English

Introduction

Snow - beautiful, cold and sometimes dangerous. Many of us like snow, and want to know when it's going to fall. What do we need to make it form and just how dangerous is it? Phil met with BBC Weather forecaster and presenter Elizabeth Rizzini to find out. Watch this video to practise your listening skills and learn useful vocabulary to talk about extreme weather.

1. Comprehension quiz

Watch the video and answer the questions.

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More in this series: How we talk about weather

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2. Vocabulary quiz

Fill the gaps in this quiz to test yourself.

falling snow
snow coming from the sky

lying snow
snow on the ground

snowballs
round lumps of snow made by people, often to throw at each other

sledging
sliding across the slow on a sledge, often downhill

snowmen
models of people made out of snow

moisture
liquid

freezing
0C, where water turns to ice

blizzard
snow storm with strong winds

sleet
wet snow

refreeze
freeze again

slippery
hard to grip on

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript. 

Phil
How do you feel when it snows? Is it exciting or are you worried about the problems it can cause? Let's find out why many people love it, how it happens and why it can be dangerous. And let's learn some language to talk about snow while we do it.

I'm here with BBC weather presenter Elizabeth Rizzini. And the first question I have is, what's the kind of weather that people ask you about most?

Elizabeth Rizzini
We are always asked, 'when is it going to snow' in the winter. People love snow or they love falling snow and lying snow too. Why? Because we like to play in it, we like to throw snowballs, we like to go sledging and build snowmen and it makes us feel warm and cosy and it's fun and pretty.

Phil
So, we know that people love snow, but what do we need for it to happen?

Elizabeth Rizzini
We need two things for snow to fall. We need very cold air, and also some moisture, rain. Now, as the rain bumps into the colder air, it will turn to snow and keep falling as snow, even at ground level.

Phil
And how cold does it need to be to get snow?

Elizabeth Rizzini
Generally, the air temperature has to be less than 2C, so even at one or two degrees above freezing, we can still see snow, but we do need quite a lot of intensity in the rainfall.

Phil
We've talked about loving snow and it being pretty and you can have fun with it, but are there risks in the winter? Are there things that are dangerous?

Elizabeth Rizzini
Yes, snow can be very dangerous, particularly to travel in, and especially when it's not just snowing, but it's also windy, that's called a blizzard. Now, of course, when temperatures drop through the night, then we can often see any rain, sleet or snow refreeze onto the ground, that's ice, and that can be very slippery and very dangerous and again, cause problems, especially if you're travelling.

Phil
So, we've heard about snow, we heard about blizzards and how cold weather can be dangerous and surfaces get slippery. We also heard that lots of us like snow because it's pretty and we can go sledging.

Elizabeth Rizzini
But winters are getting milder, but don't forget to wrap up warmly if winter is cold where you live.

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