Hebrew Words for Weather and Seasons

Weather is the universal small-talk topic, and Israelis have strong opinions about it. We complain about the summer heat from May to October, and we pretend to freeze from December to February. Knowing the Hebrew words for weather and seasons will unlock dozens of everyday conversations. Here they are, with how Israelis actually use them.

The four seasons

• Aviv (אָבִיב), spring. March to May.
• Kayitz (קַיִץ), summer. June to September.
• Stav (סְתָו), autumn. October to November.
• Choref (חֹרֶף), winter. December to February.

Israeli seasons are a bit compressed. Spring and autumn are short (a few weeks each), while summer and winter dominate. If you visit in October you'll get a few cool days. Two weeks later, it's winter.

Hot and cold

• Cham, hot.
• Kar, cold.
• Chamim, warm.
• Karir, cool.

In Hebrew, "the weather is hot" is said as cham ba-chutz (it's hot outside) or just cham by itself. You don't need to say "the weather" explicitly.

The weather itself

• Geshem, rain.
• Sheleg, snow.
• Ruach, wind.
• Shemesh, sun.
• Anan, cloud. Ananim, clouds.
• Arafel, fog.
• Barad, hail.

Snow is a rare event in most of Israel. Jerusalem gets a day or two of snow most winters, Tel Aviv almost never. When it snows in Jerusalem, the whole country talks about it for a week.

Common weather phrases

• Yored geshem, it's raining. Literally "rain is falling".
• Zorachat shemesh, the sun is shining.
• Ayzeh chom!, what a heat!
• Ayzeh kor!, what a cold!
• Meunan, cloudy.
• Bahir, clear.

Israelis say ayzeh chom every single day from May to October. It's our national complaint.

Special Israeli weather words

A few weather words are unique to the region:

• Chamsin (חַמְסִין), a hot, dry desert wind that blows from the east. Makes everything feel like a furnace. Named from the Arabic word for "fifty", because these winds traditionally lasted about 50 days a year.
• Sharav, similar to chamsin, another word for a heat wave with dry air.

If you're in Israel during chamsin, stay indoors if you can. The air gets thick with dust, and even Israelis complain.

Seasonal activities

Israeli life changes with the seasons more than most people realize:

• Kayitz: beach season. Tel Aviv lives outside from May to September. Locals spend weekends at the yam (sea).
• Choref: soup season, sweater weather, short rainy days. Israelis love their marak (soup) in winter.
• Aviv: hiking season in the Galilee and desert. The wildflowers come out and trails fill up.
• Stav: the in-between moment. Cafés put outdoor tables back out, the heat eases, and everyone sighs in relief.

Talking about the weather

Here's a typical weather conversation you'll hear in Israel:

A: Ayzeh chom hayom!
B: Ken, bilti nisbal. Lo yashanti ba-layla.
Translation: What a heat today! Yes, unbearable. I didn't sleep last night.

This is the default weather exchange between Israelis. It's basically ritualized complaining.

The practice move

Look out your window right now and say three things in Hebrew about the weather. "It's sunny. There's a little wind. It's warm." If you don't know a word, look it up. You just learned three more weather words than you knew yesterday.

For more weather and season vocabulary with audio, our topics pages include a full weather list, and our phrases section has seasonal sentences for daily life.

Weather talk is free Hebrew practice, 365 days a year. Use it.