How we talk about the weather / How do we talk about snow?

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

How do you feel when it snows? Is it exciting or are you worried about the problems it can cause? Let's find out why many people love it, how it happens and why it can be dangerous. And let's learn some language to talk about snow while we do it.

I'm here with BBC weather presenter Elizabeth Rizzini. And the first question I have is, what's the kind of weather that people ask you about most?

We are always asked, 'when is it going to snow' in the winter. People love snow or they love falling snow and lying snow too. Why? Because we like to play in it, we like to throw snowballs, we like to go sledging and build snowmen and it makes us feel warm and cosy and it's fun and pretty.

So, we know that people love snow, but what do we need for it to happen?

We need two things for snow to fall. We need very cold air, and also some moisture, rain. Now, as the rain bumps into the colder air, it will turn to snow and keep falling as snow, even at ground level.

And how cold does it need to be to get snow?

Generally, the air temperature has to be less than 2C, so even at one or two degrees above freezing, we can still see snow, but we do need quite a lot of intensity in the rainfall.

We've talked about loving snow and it being pretty and you can have fun with it, but are there risks in the winter? Are there things that are dangerous?

Yes, snow can be very dangerous, particularly to travel in, and especially when it's not just snowing, but it's also windy, that's called a blizzard. Now, of course, when temperatures drop through the night, then we can often see any rain, sleet or snow refreeze onto the ground, that's ice, and that can be very slippery and very dangerous and again, cause problems, especially if you're travelling.