IELTS Speaking Common Topic: Weather
IELTS Speaking Part 1 Weather Questions:
- What’s the weather like where you live?
- Do you prefer cold or hot weather?
- Do you prefer dry or wet weather?
- Are you in the habit of checking the weather forecast? When and how often?
Advice
– This topic mostly requires verbs to be in the simple present tense because it relates to
facts.
– This topic provides great opportunities to use expressive adjectives and demonstrate
a large vocabulary to describe the weather and how it makes you feel.
– In Q2 and Q3, after choosing your preferred weather, you can explain why you like it
and also why you dislike the opposite. For example, if you prefer hot weather
(because you can go outside and be in the sun) you can also describe how you dislike
cold weather (because you can’t go outside for walks or relax in the sunshine).
Vocabulary
– Gusts
– Sweltering
– Record-shattering
– Tail-end
– Bitterly cold
– Below zero
– Outdoorsy
– Damp / dampness
– Soul-destroying
– Swing past
– Beat the traffic
– To be religious about something
IELTS Speaking Full Answers:
Question: What’s the weather like where you live?
Answer: In Shanghai, we experience four distinct seasons over the year. A typical summer is hot and
humid, while winter is bitterly cold with icy gusts of wind blowing most of the time. Since we’re in
a subtropical climate zone, we seldom get any snow, but it does get below zero. Autumn and
spring are generally pleasant, though I would say the air has a prevailing dampness throughout the
year, which can be soul-destroying for people who aren’t used to living with constant humidity.
Question: Do you prefer cold or hot weather?
Answer: Actually, my ideal would be the middle ground between the two, but if I had to choose one
extreme, it would be cold weather without a doubt. It’s much easier to get warm than it is to cool
down. You may have seen on the news that we’re on the tail-end of the most unbearable
heatwave that has been spreading throughout coastal China. It’s subsiding now, fortunately, but it
was swelteringly hot with temperatures of just under 41 degrees Celsius during the peak. Heat is
bad enough on its own, but with the overbearing humidity as well, it was impossible to get
anything done. I barely made it through the heat, so I would always choose very cold over very hot
weather.
Question: Do you prefer dry or wet weather?
Answer: It’s got to be dry weather for me, because I’m quite an outdoorsy person. Shanghai is already
too humid for my liking, but I was born here and my whole life is set up in this city, so I would
never leave. One does get used to it – eventually. Well, at least enough to grin and bear it without
feeling totally defeated by the oppressive humidity. At times it’s even felt a bit like living inside a
sauna, which I really can’t stand. At least with dry weather, you can breathe deeply and easily.
Question: Are you in the habit of checking the weather forecast? When and how often?
Answer: Generally, yes, as I need to know what to wear on any given day, especially because I often go
out after work to beat the traffic, or I swing past the gym on my way home. I normally check the
forecast on my weather app while drinking my morning brew. Other times, I might catch a
segment of my colleagues’ conversations about the weather, so I get updated about the weather
that way. I wouldn’t say I’m religious about checking the weather every day, though.
