American English in
Weather Report

American English in Weather Report :


JENNIFER : It’s freezing outside! What happened to the weather report? I thought this cold front was supposed to pass.


GABRIELA : Yeah, I thought so too. That’s what I read online this morning.


JENNIFER : I guess the wind chill is really driving down the temperature.


GABRIELA : Can we go inside? I feel like my toes are starting to go numb.

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LANGUAGE NOTES


A “cold front” means a large mass of cold air. It can be plural: There were multiple cold fronts this January.


Here “supposed to” refers to something that is intended or expected to happen: I thought it was supposed to rain today. This phrase can be used for many situations: I thought the train was supposed to arrive at 9:00 a.m. sharp.


Yeah / Yup / Uh huh are informal conversational cues used by native speakers in conversation. Each of these responses could be used here for “yes.” Gabriela affirms what Jennifer is saying. The most polite way to affirm a response is to say “yes.”


Listen for the emphasis on “That’s what I read online this morning.” This useful phrase can be used with other verbs to convey information: That’s what I heard on the radio. / That’s what I saw on TV. / That’s what I read online.


Chill / freezing / cold : These words describe cold weather. I feel the wind chill. / I feel the chill. / I am freezing. / I am cold.


Wind chill is the effect of the wind making the temperature feel colder on a person’s skin. This is an uncountable noun. The temperature is 4 degrees, but with the wind chill it feels like -8. These phrases are used in weather reports as well.


The phrase “driving down” means “forcing to be lower” and can be used in many situations. An oversupply of new houses is driving down sales prices in the area.


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