Us Scots love to talk about the weather. It’s almost like a hobby.

Perhaps that’s why we have more than 400 words for snow.

Although ‘dreich’ will forever be the nation’s favourite here are some of our other fabulous Scottish weather-related words.

Bonus points if you know or have used more than five of them in the last year!

Snell

So bitterly cold it feels as though the air is piercing your skin with lots of tiny needles.

Flaggie

A very large snowflake.

Dreich

Covering a wide variety of weather conditions in one simple and expressive word, including bleak, miserable, grey, dreary, gloomy, depressing etc

Dreep

Steady but light rainfall.

Blenter

A gusty wind great for kite flying.

Grulie

Unsettled weather. The kind that refuses to commit.

Leesome

A lovely fair day. Rare but bonnie.

Pirl

A soft breeze.

Fret

A super chilly and damp mist that comes in off the sea.

Mochie

When everything feels a bit clammy and oppressive. That feeling you get on those odd, damp, humid days the midges love.

Drookit

Totally and utterly soaked. When you’re so sodden from being caught in the rain, you could literally wring out your socks.

Jeelit

Brr! To feel ‘fair jeelit’ is to feel as cold as ice.

Sump

When the rain comes down like a waterfall without warning - a sudden very heavy burst of rainfall. You can also use the word ‘Plype’.

Gloaming

That lovely time at dusk when the light is all moody and full of blues and purples. Gloaming dates back to the fifteenth-century in an old Scots text which records: ‘the glomyng of the nycht’.

Greetie

Coming from the Scots word ‘greet’, which means to cry tears, ‘greetie’ means showery rain.

Haar

The beautifully haunting mist that comes in of the North Sea on the east coast, especially noted around Aberdeenshire.

Plowetery

Probably the messiest weather there is, when it’s all a bit rainy, grey and miserable outside. It’s fun to say though.

Oorlich

A word not used nearly enough which includes a hearty mix of damp, nippy, cold and chilly weather all in one go. A bit like weather soup.

Smirr

A kind of lazy rain. The rain that doesn’t drench you but manages to soak you slowly nonetheless through sheer persistence.

Feefle

A magical, happy kind of snow shower with swirling snowflakes in the air. The kind that makes you want to dance to Frozen songs.

Flindrikin

A baby snow shower. Aww.

Spitters

Small icy droplets or snowflakes that are blown in on the wind.

Unbrak

The beginning of a thaw. That magic moment as the ice begins to melt.

Simmer cowt

A heat haze. Nice and shimmery.

Thunder-plump

A sudden thunderstorm accompanied by thunder and lightning.

Gandiegow

A squall. A sudden violent gust of wind usually bringing rain or sleet.

Dubbs

Scottish puddles.

Wreaths

Snow drifts. Massive deposits of snow created by wind that shapes them into a mound.

*A Creative Commons image was used in this article.