Persian Weather & Seasons Vocabulary

In Milan, weather small talk is an art form. Che freddo, che caldo, a shrug, an espresso. done. In Tehran, weather small talk comes with a vocabulary lesson in pollution, government conspiracy theories, and seasonal depression. The first winter I spent back in Tehran after years abroad, schools shut down for a week. Not snow. Not holidays. Air quality so bad the government declared it unsafe to breathe outside. That was my introduction to Persian weather vocabulary. not bârân (rain) or barf (snow), but âludegi (pollution) and gelkhâneh (greenhouse effect). Tehran teaches you weather words the hard way.

This post covers 30 Farsi weather words, the four seasons in Persian, the phrases Iranians actually use to complain about the temperature, and the pollution vocabulary you won't find in any textbook but will hear every winter in Tehran.

Weather Basics: Sun, Rain, and Everything Falling from the Sky

These ten words cover the core weather conditions. Most of them work as both nouns and adjectives by adding ی (-i). a pattern so useful you'll want to tattoo it on your hand.

آفتاب. âftâb. sun / sunshine
Emruz âftâb-e. It's sunny today. The word for the physical sun (the star) is خورشید. khorshid, but when talking about weather, âftâb is what you use. Adjective form: آفتابی. âftâbi. sunny.

باران. bârân. rain
Bârân miy-âd. It's raining (literally "rain is coming"). Adjective: بارانی. bâruni. rainy. Note the vowel shift from bârân to bâruni in spoken Farsi. that â becomes u, same pattern you see in khâneh → khuneh.

برف. barf. snow
Barf umad!. It snowed! Yes, it sounds like the English word for vomiting. Get the giggles out now. Adjective: برفی. barfi. snowy.

ابر. abr. cloud
Havâ abri-e. It's cloudy. Adjective: ابری. abri. cloudy. Tehran in winter is abri about 70% of the time, which doesn't help anyone's mood.

باد. bâd. wind
Che bâdi miy-âd!. What a wind! Adjective: بادی. bâdi. windy. In Tehran, wind is actually good news. it blows the pollution away.

تگرگ. tagarg. hail
Tagarg zad. It hailed (literally "hail struck"). Not common in most of Iran, but when it hits, it hits hard. Drivers panic. Fruit sellers weep.

رعد و برق. ra'd-o-bargh. thunder and lightning
Literally "thunder and lightning". the o is the spoken form of va (and). Ra'd-o-bargh mizaneh. There's thunder and lightning. Fun fact: برق (bargh) also means "electricity" in modern Persian.

مه. meh. fog
Meh umadeh. It's foggy (literally "fog has come"). Short, simple, sounds exactly like the English "meh." Which is also how you feel driving through it.

شبنم. shabnam. dew
Literally "night water". shab (night) + nam (moisture). One of those Persian words that's also a popular girl's name. Shabnam ruy-e gol-hâ-st. There's dew on the flowers.

طوفان. tufân. storm
Tufân miy-âd. A storm is coming. Also used metaphorically: tufân-e ehsâsât. storm of emotions. Iranians are dramatic. The language reflects it.

Temperature and Sensations

Iranians don't just say "it's hot." They have levels. And the spoken versions are where the real personality comes through.

گرم. garm. hot / warm
Havâ garm-e. It's hot. Covers everything from pleasantly warm to uncomfortably hot. For "warm" specifically, you'd say ye kam garm-e. it's a bit warm.

سرد. sard. cold
Birun sard-e. It's cold outside. Sard is the neutral term. For "it's freezing" territory, read on.

شرجی. sharji. humid
Havâ sharji-e. It's humid. This word gets a workout in southern Iranian cities like Bandar Abbas and Ahvaz, where summer humidity makes you question your life choices. Tehranis use it less. their summers are dry heat.

یخ. yakh. ice / freezing
Dastâm yakh kard. My hands froze. Also used as an adjective: âb-e yakh. ice water. When someone says birun yakh-e, they mean it's brutally cold.

خنک. khonok. cool / chilly
Havâ khonok-e. It's cool out. The sweet spot between sard and garm. Tehran in early spring and late fall is khonok. jacket weather.

ملایم. molâyem. mild / moderate
Havâ molâyem-e. The weather's mild. The ideal. The thing Tehran has for approximately three weeks a year. two in spring, one in fall.

داغ. dâgh. scorching / burning hot
In châi dâgh-e!. This tea is burning hot! Stronger than garm. When Tehranis say havâ dâgh-e, they're not being dramatic. they mean 42°C and climbing. Dâgh is also used for food temperature: ghazâ dâgh-e. the food is hot.

The Four Seasons in Persian

Here's where Persian gets interesting for non-Iranians. The four seasons exist. The words are straightforward. But the Persian calendar shifts everything.

بهار. bahâr. spring
The most beloved season and the most loaded word. Bahâr starts on the spring equinox. which is also Nowruz, the Persian New Year and the first day of the Persian calendar. Spring = new year = rebirth = the biggest holiday of the year. When an Iranian says bahâr, they're not just talking about weather.

تابستان. tâbestân. summer
Tâbestun-e Tehrân adam ro mikosheh. Tehran's summer kills you. (Spoken: note tâbestun not tâbestân.) Tehran hits 40°C+ regularly. Everyone who can afford it leaves for the Caspian coast or the mountains.

پاییز. pâyiz. autumn / fall
Pâyiz ghashang-tarin fasl-e. Autumn is the most beautiful season. Many Iranians would agree. Tehran's tree-lined streets turn gold and red, the heat breaks, and the city becomes almost liveable again.

زمستان. zemestân. winter
Zemestun-e sakhti bud. It was a hard winter. (Spoken: zemestun.) Winter in Tehran means cold, pollution, school closures, and arguments about whether the government is honest about the air quality index.

Weather as Small Talk: What Iranians Actually Say

In English, "nice weather, isn't it?" fills awkward silences. In Persian, weather talk is more emotional, more dramatic, and often a gateway to complaining. which is basically a national sport.

هوا چطوره؟. Havâ chetore?. How's the weather?
The standard opener. Can be asked literally (you're planning an outing) or as small talk (you need something to say). Havâ means both "weather" and "air". a double meaning that becomes relevant in the pollution section.

!چه گرمی. Che garmi!. What heat! / It's so hot!
The summer mantra. You'll hear this from June to September, every day, from everyone. Sometimes followed by dâram âb misham. I'm melting. Iranians don't suffer heat quietly.

!چه سردی. Che sardi!. What cold! / It's so cold!
The winter version. Often followed by pulling a scarf tighter and muttering about the gas bill.

هوا عوض شده. Havâ avaz shodeh. The weather has changed
A seasonal transition observation. Iranians are acutely aware of weather shifts. partly because Tehran's weather genuinely swings hard between seasons, and partly because weather change is blamed for every cold, flu, and headache in the country.

آفتاب بزن. Âftâb bezan. Get some sun / sunbathe
Literally "hit the sun." Grandmothers say this to pale grandchildren. Not a weather report. a prescription.

Weather small talk in Persian often doubles as greeting territory. Havâ chetore? can follow right after salâm, chetori?. and the answer might be a full monologue about the pollution index, the traffic, and the price of gas. That's not small talk going off-track. That IS the small talk.

Tehran-Specific: The Pollution Vocabulary

No other city teaches you weather vocabulary quite like Tehran. Half the winter, the conversation isn't about rain or cold. it's about whether the air will literally make you sick. If you plan to spend any time in Iran, or even follow Iranian news, these words are essential. I wrote an entire survival guide to Tehran's air pollution. here's the language you need to talk about it.

آلودگی. âludegi. pollution / contamination
Âludegi ziyâd-e. Pollution is high. The word Tehranis say more often than any weather word from November to February. Derived from آلوده. âlude. polluted.

هوای آلوده. havâ-ye âlude. polluted air
Havâ âlude-st, birun naro. The air is polluted, don't go out. When your Tehran friends text you this at 7am, they're not being dramatic. Check the AQI before stepping outside.

گلخانه. gelkhâneh. greenhouse (effect)
Gelkhâne-i shodeh. It's become greenhouse-like. Used when the air is trapped, still, warm, and toxic. the thermal inversion that turns Tehran into a gas chamber every winter. The mountains around Tehran block airflow, trapping pollution in the valley.

تعطیلات. ta'tilât. closures / holidays
Fardâ ta'til-e, havâ âlude-st. Tomorrow's closed, the air is polluted. When pollution gets severe enough, the government shuts schools and sometimes government offices. Ta'tilât-e âludegi. pollution closures. is a phrase Tehrani kids know by heart.

ماسک. mâsk. mask
Mâsk bezar. Put on a mask. Borrowed from English. Tehranis were wearing masks for pollution years before COVID made it a global habit.

Quick Reference Table

All 30 words in one place. Screenshot it, print it, or add them to your flashcard deck.

FAQ

Thirty words and you can hold your own in any weather conversation in Iran. from the polite havâ chetore? to the survival-mode âludegi kheyli bad-e. If you're building your core vocabulary, weather words earn their place fast because they show up in daily greetings, news, and every taxi ride in Tehran.

For the bigger picture of vocabulary organized by level and topic, the vocabulary by topic hub connects all the word lists. And if you're curious how weather and seasons tie into Iranian traditions, Nowruz alone could fill a semester. but that's another post.

When you're ready to describe Tehran's weather to a native speaker without them correcting your pronunciation of آلودگی three times. I teach on Preply. We'll do a weather report role-play where you describe today's conditions in Tehran, and I'll respond like a Tehrani taxi driver who has opinions about everything, including the government's air quality numbers. Fair warning: you'll learn more slang in 30 minutes than most textbooks cover in a chapter.

Get it wrong and the worst that happens is a warm laugh and a story they’ll tell for years. Get it right — refuse the tea twice, accept on the third — and you’ll watch a face open up. You didn’t just speak Persian. You played the game.