El Tiempo

[Beto]

Regarding the weather, most every grammar book I have seen indicates that you use "hacer" to discuss the weather. ¿Qué tiempo hace? Hace calor o hace frio. However, frequently I hear Spanish speakers using "estar". ¿Cómo está el tiempo? Está caliente o está frio. Moreover my Spanish teacher always told us not to use cailente with weather, that it only should be used when referring to degree of warmth of liquids.

Any thoughts on this?

[aleCcowaN]

Hace frío / Hace calor
Está frío / Está fresco / Está templado / Está caluroso

With hacer it's kind of more objective and from the point of view of any person's thermal balance. You have to prepare yourself to bear with lo que hace. Notice there are not intermediate stages.

With estar it's more a summary of the state of the weather at a given moment.

But it's not that precise, nor written in stone.

[LearningSpanish]

I think that hace is used to describe an action as in what's going on as far as the weather is concerned and it is used with nouns - hace frío (it's making cold), hace calor (it's making heat - or perhaps from the perspective of a Creator, he/God is making heat - that's just a guess though ;) ).

But está is used to describe the state that the weather is in and is used with adjectives - está nublado, está lloviendo.

And just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons I think you can also use ser with the weather if you are talking about the characteristics of the day.

Ayer fue un día frío. Yesterday it was a cold day.

[Beto]

Gracias a todas. Entiendo. Muy amable.