天气

天气 (tiānqì) is the Chinese word for 'weather' — literally 'sky air.' It refers to the day-to-day conditions: temperature, sunshine, rain, wind, snow. Common HSK 1 patterns combine it with simple adjectives: 天气好 (tiānqì hǎo, 'the weather is nice'), 天气热 (tiānqì rè, 'the weather is hot'), 天气冷 (tiānqì lěng, 'the weather is cold').

Two notes for English speakers: first, in Chinese 天气 normally appears with 很 or another modifier — saying just 天气好 sounds short, while 天气很好 is the natural full sentence; second, 天气 differs from 气候 (qìhòu, 'climate'), which describes long-term patterns over a region or season. If you're talking about tomorrow's rain, that's 天气; if you're talking about Beijing's dry winters, that's 气候.