Other phrases use the verb estar and an adjective like nublado o soleado. Since these are adjectives, add muy to say very or parcialmente for partially.

The verbs llover and nevar can be used with estar to say "It is raining" or "It is snowing", or they can be used in the third person to say "It rains" or "It snows". Look at the table to see how we use these two verbs to Talk about the Weather.

Verbs	Llover	Nevar
General form	Llueve mucho en abril. Llueve	NIeva mucho en enero. Nieva
Expression with estar (-ing) (happening right now)	Está lloviendo	Está nevando
Noun form	Hay mucha lluvia. la lluvia	Yo veo la nieve. la nieve

• Llover and nevar are verbs that you conjugate in the third person only (él form) —llueve y nieva. (Think about it - would you ever use llover with Yo or Tú? )  EG: Llueve mucho en abril - It rains in April.
  


• We can use estar with these verbs, and you will learn more weather expressions with estar later:  Está lloviendo y está nevando. (It is raining at this moment.)
  


• Do not confuse them with their noun forms, which are: la lluvia (the rain) and la nieve (the snow).   EG: Hay mucha lluvia - There is a lot of rain.
  

Está nevando and Está lloviendo are a great introduction to the Present Progressive tense.
We use this to talk about actions in progress right now (ahora mismo).

All you need is the right form of ESTAR and then add the  equivalent of "- ing" ending.

• Yo estoy hablando = I am talking
  
• Yo estoy escribiendo = I am writing.
  

¡Ojo! ¡Atención!
In English we tend to use -ing for many situations. Remember - in Spanish, present tense (Tú miras) is much more common than present progressive. (Tú estás mirando).  Only use this when an action is in progress ahora mismo - right this moment.