Mr. Quang Nguyen, an English pronunciation training expert, shares some vocabulary to talk about rainy, cold weather:

When the weather is around 10 degrees, we Vietnamese often call it "cold" or "chilly", but in America, I see people often just say "cool". If it's colder than "cold", we can say: "It's freezing" or "it's frigid". If it's cold enough to "cut skin and flesh", the English expression is: "It's biting cold".

If the temperature drops below 0 degrees Celsius and there is a lot of snow, we say: "a snowy day". When water vapor in the air sticks to surfaces and forms "ice", the British use "frost". Its adjective "frosty" also means very cold.

When it's cold, a few drops of water from the roof or tree trunk freeze to form "icicles" (like stalactites in a cave, but ice), called "icicles". If "cold as ice" then English has the expression "icy", for example: "the water is icy" - the water is always cold as ice.

Rain that falls when the temperature drops has many different expressions. For example, rain that falls to the ground and then freezes is called "freezing rain".

The second type is "sleet", many of you probably think of "hail". Actually, "hail" often appears in hot air areas, with large ice particles and thunderstorms. "Sleet" is when rain/ice drops fall through a hot air area, turn into water, then fall down into cold air, the water droplets freeze, that is hail. Simply put, "sleet" is "hail" when the temperature is very low; and "hail" is hail when there is a thunderstorm, in a warm temperature area.

Quang Nguyen (Moon ESL)