How to Read a Korean Weather Forecast

Korean weather text looks hard until you notice it is a template. The Korea Meteorological Administration publishes short-range forecasts on a fixed schedule; the numbers change, the sentence frames barely do.

This lesson teaches the frames. Open a live forecast when you practise. Do not memorise a made-up Tuesday.

The sentence you will keep seeing

내일은 비가 오겠습니다.
naeireun biga ogetseumnida.
Tomorrow, it is expected to rain.

Break it down:

• 내일은 — tomorrow + 은 (topic: as for tomorrow)
• 비가 — rain + 이/가 (new weather event as subject)
• 오겠습니다 — 오다 + -겠- + 습니다

-겠- is the bone of forecast Korean. Here it is not a personal promise. It is the forecaster’s judgement from now: rain is in the outlook. The full contrast with -(으)ㄹ 거예요 lives on the -겠- page.

Compare stance (same day, different grammar):

Korean	Stance
비가 오겠습니다	assessment / outlook
내일 비가 올 거예요	often a personal expectation/plan framing
내일 비 와요	conversational, treating it as settled talk

Official boards prefer the first column.

Labels on the screen

When you open 날씨누리, match these words to the UI:

Korean	What it is
기온	temperature (°C in Korea)
최고 / 최저	high / low
강수확률	chance of rain or other precipitation (%)
강수량	how much precipitation, when it is quantified
하늘상태	sky state — 맑음, 구름많음, 흐림…
미세먼지	fine dust / air quality band

Screen labels often glue words for space: 구름많음 on the graphic is the same idea as spaced 구름 많음 in careful writing. Treat the fused form as UI shorthand, not a new spelling rule.

KMA’s own forecast-work page lists the short-range elements it actually issues: on-the-hour temperature, daily high/low, precipitation type and probability, sky condition, wind, humidity, and more — updated on a fixed daily schedule. You do not need to memorise the schedule. You need to recognise the nouns when they appear.

More reusable frames

오후에는 맑겠습니다.
ohueneun malgetseumnida.
It will be clear in the afternoon.

오후에는 uses 에 inside a time topic (에 + 는). 맑겠습니다 is adjective 맑다 + -겠- + 습니다.

강수확률은 40퍼센트입니다.
gangsu hwangnyureun sasip peosenteuimnida.
The chance of precipitation is 40%.

No -겠- here — it is reporting a number on the board, so plain 입니다 is enough.

미세먼지 농도는 ‘나쁨’ 수준입니다.
Fine-dust concentration is at the “bad” level.

Air-quality bands you will meet: 좋음 / 보통 / 나쁨 / 매우 나쁨. Read them as status labels, not poetry.

Spoken vs written

The board uses noun labels (구름많음, 흐림). A presenter turns the same weather into full sentences:

구름이 많이 끼겠습니다.
There will be a lot of cloud.

비가 내리겠습니다.
Rain will fall.

Apps and captions often stay in 합니다체. Friends texting you the same outlook drop into 해요체:

오후에 비 오겠어요.
Looks like rain in the afternoon.

Same -겠-, softer ending. Learn both; do not mix them inside one formal sentence. An even softer spoken hedge drops -겠- and uses 올 것 같아요 instead — different stance, covered on that page.

For the three-way map of plan vs judgement vs timetable, see Korean Future Tense.

How to practise today

1. Open the KMA portal.
2. Pick your city.
3. Write three Korean sentences that only use numbers and sky states from the screen in front of you.
4. Force at least one -겠습니다 outlook sentence and one 입니다 label sentence.

If you invent temperatures, you are practising fiction. If you copy the live board, you are practising literacy.