How to Write Lyrics About Weather

Weather is the easiest mood ring you will ever wear. It is public, universal, and cheap to reference. Rain can be sad, sun can be horny, wind can be restless, and a thunderstorm can be that dramatic fight you regret at 2 a.m. This guide teaches you how to use weather without sounding like a Hallmark card gone rogue. You will get practical workflows, vivid line rewrites, melody and prosody checks, production ideas, and enough lyrical prompts to drown a notebook in imagery.

Everything here is written for artists who want results, not theory thrills. Expect quick drills, clear definitions for any jargon or acronyms, and real life scenarios that make your lyrics feel lived in. We will cover choosing literal versus metaphorical weather, turning clichés into specific scenes, placing weather lines into your structure, and finishing a weather lyric that actually lands with listeners.

Why Weather Works as Lyrical Material

Weather is free and effective for three reasons.

• It is universal People everywhere know rain and sun. That shared knowledge gets your listener inside the song fast.
• It is sensory Weather invites sight, sound, smell, and touch. You can write a line that hits the nose and the spine at once.
• It is flexible Weather can be literal description or emotional metaphor. You can write a song that is about a literal beach day or a breakup disguised as a hurricane.

Real life scenario

You are sitting in a coffee shop and the barista says it is going to storm. You do not need to be a poet to feel the electricity in that sentence. Use lines like that to anchor character and place. The listener will fill in the cinematic extras for free.

Literal Versus Metaphorical Weather

Decide early whether your weather lines will report actual meteorology or act as a mood palette. Both choices are valid. The difference is intention.

Literal weather

These lyrics describe what is happening outside with clarity. Use literal weather when place matters, when a scene depends on conditions, or when you want a grounded anchor in the narrative.

Example

It started raining at noon and the deli guy still wore his sunglasses.

That line gives time, a small character detail, and a quirk that hints at a mood without explaining it.

Metaphorical weather

These lyrics use weather as a symbol for emotion. Metaphor works best when you keep the image specific and tied to action. Avoid abstract claims like I am a storm. Instead show how the storm behaves in your song world.

Example

I learned to throw plates when the thunder was loud enough to hide the sound.

The plates and the thunder create a scene where anger is active and messy. Your listener sees the fight and hears the storm as cover. That is metaphor in motion.

Map Weather to Emotion Like a Therapist With a Paint Set

There are easy default matches you can use while still staying original. Use them as starting points not rules. Replace any blanket mapping with a single personal detail and the line will stop sounding like a textbook.

• Rain often equals sadness, cleansing, secrecy, or reconciliation
• Sun often equals warmth, desire, exposure, or arrogance
• Wind often equals change, restlessness, secrets, or absence
• Snow often equals quiet, freeze, memory, or stubbornness
• Storm often equals conflict, release, guilt, or chaos
• Fog often equals confusion, memory, oubliette of truth, or intimacy

Real life scenario

You write about a breakup. Instead of saying I felt cold, try: The radiator argued with me and lost. That couples a weather feeling with a domestic image. The lyric becomes believable and oddly funny.

Techniques to Keep Weather Lyrics Fresh

The problem with weather is that clichés are abundant. We are going to steal the clichés and then gut them until they grow into something new.

Technique 1: Concrete object swap

Replace abstract weather words with a concrete object that performs an action. Instead of The rain made me cry write The rain put its thumb down on my letter and would not let it dry. The rain becomes an actor with intention.

Technique 2: Time and place crumbs

People remember stories with time stamps and locations. Adding a small time crumb like Sunday meter parking or a place crumb like the corner stall at the farmer market will make the weather line specific.

Before

The sky is grey and I miss you.

After

Two hours before closing the market lamps glowed like apology and I still missed you.

Technique 3: Action verbs not states

Prefer verbs that move. Instead of It was cold write The cold rolled its sleeves and left the window open. Action makes emotion visible.

Technique 4: Use negative space

Silence and absence are weather too. A clear sky can be the loudest thing in a grief song. Use empty sound, pauses in delivery, or a single repeated word to suggest the sun is so bright you cannot see your hands.

Technique 5: Scale mismatch

Write a small human detail against a huge meteorological event. A hurricane is big. A missing earring is small. The contrast makes both items more interesting.

Example

We watched the storm eat the pier and I went back for your other glove. It fit better than your memory.

How to Place Weather Lines in Song Structure

Different parts of the song carry different responsibilities. Place weather where it supports those responsibilities.

Verses

Verses are for story and detail. Use weather in the verse when it anchors scene, gives time, or shows character action. Keep the language lower in range and more conversational.

Verse example

The bus did not stop because the driver was singing and rain had learned every word. I stood damp and patient at the stop and learned how to wait without asking why.

Pre chorus

The pre chorus builds. Use a weather line to increase tension or hint at the chorus idea without repeating the chorus title. For example a line about the clouds lining up like witnesses can push toward the chorus promise.

Chorus

The chorus is the emotional thesis. If weather is your central metaphor, the chorus should make that promise clear. Keep the chorus language simple and singable. Place the title on a strong beat and give it a long vowel where possible.

Chorus example

Let the rain keep our secrets. Let it map the places we could not say out loud. Let it be the thing that keeps our names from hurting.

Bridge

Bridges need to show a twist or a new angle. If your song uses weather as metaphor, the bridge can flip literal with metaphorical or reveal the human cause behind the storm. It is the place to show consequence or confession.

Bridge example

All the windows stayed shut because my hands had fingerprints you would not recognize anymore. I learned to build storms in the sink just to feel less guilty.

Prosody and Weather Words

Prosody is how words fit rhythm and melody. A word can sound powerful but feel wrong if its natural stress does not land on the strong musical beat. That friction is a common reason a great lyric does not read right in a song.

Prosody explained

Prosody means matching the stressed syllables in spoken language with the strong beats in the music. If the strong word lands on a weak musical beat the line will feel like it trips even if you cannot explain why. Fix by moving the word, changing the melody, or using a synonym that stresses differently.

Example prosody check

Bad prosody

The sun goes down and I lose my head. Try saying that aloud and tap on the words. You will notice the word down wants to live on the beat.

Fix

Let the sun sit on my tongue and it will set for me. The word sun now sits on a long note and lands clean.

Exercise: Prosody check

1. Say your line out loud at conversation speed.
2. Tap a steady beat with your foot.
3. Circle the syllable you naturally stress.
4. Make sure that syllable matches the musical downbeat in your melody.

If it does not match rewrite the line until it does. This drill will save studio time and ego later.

Rhyme and Weather Imagery

Weather words often end in strong vowels like rain, pain, sun, done. The temptation is to rhyme pain with rain and sound safe. Use rhyme variety instead. Try internal rhyme, family rhyme, and slant rhyme. Family rhyme means similar vowels or consonants not perfect matches. Slant rhyme means the bones of the end sound are similar.

Examples

• Perfect rhyme: rain, pain
• Family rhyme: rain, range, remain
• Slant rhyme: rain, run

Use a perfect rhyme at the emotional turn and family rhyme on the supporting lines. That makes the hook hit without sounding like a nursery rhyme.

Melody and Vocal Delivery for Weather Lines

Think of weather words like ornaments. Some are light and float. Some hit with gravity. Tailor your delivery to the word.

• Short clipped words like wind can be percussive. Try staccato or whispered delivery.
• Open vowel words like rain and sun are easy to hold and become anchors. Use long notes.
• Harsh consonant heavy words like thunder or lightning want bite. Use consonant emphasis or a growled approach for character.

Real life scenario

You have a chorus that repeats the word storm. Try singing most repetitions soft then one repetition with the mic up and a tiny vocal grit. The listener will feel the word land like an act of violence and it will stop sounding like a pop repeat.

Production Choices That Support Weather Lyrics

Lyrics and production are friends not enemies. A small production choice can make a weather line feel cinematic or disposable. Here are quick production ideas that help weather lyrics breathe.

• Reverb tail on the vocal for rain images. Let the voice trail like water dripping.
• Field recording of actual rain or pavement for authenticity. Even a distant muffled traffic loop can sell a storm.
• Wind noise using a filtered white noise sweep during the pre chorus to suggest gusts without words.
• Panning tremolo or small delay on a hand percussion to imitate heartbeat during thunder imagery.
• Space and silence remove instruments before a weather line to let the words float alone. Silence makes weather loud.

Explainers

Reverb means the echo or space that makes a sound feel like it is in a room or cave. Field recording means recording real world sounds like rain. Panning means moving sound left to right in stereo. These production tools help the listener feel place not just hear words.

Songwriting Exercises Focused on Weather

Drills build speed and truth. Try these in a session. Set a timer and do not overthink.

Exercise 1: The Object in the Storm

Ten minute timer. Pick one object in a room near you. Write four lines where that object interacts with a weather element. Make each line reveal a fact about the singer.

Example

The mug keeps smelling like your cologne even though the rain washed the bench. It holds the last letter like a hand, it thinks it is polite to wait on the sill, it swears it will not leave.

Exercise 2: Time Stamp Drill

Five minute timer. Write a chorus that includes a specific time, a weekday, and a weather state. Push for imagery not explanation.

Exercise 3: Camera Pass

Read a verse you have written. For each line imagine a camera shot and write it in brackets. If you cannot imagine a shot, replace the line with an object and an action until you can.

Exercise 4: Small Scale Against Big Scale

Write three lines where a small domestic action sits against a major weather event. For example a blown out power line and a burning toast. Make the smaller detail carry the emotional truth.

Exercise 5: Flip the Cliche

Take a cliché like It was raining on our parade and rewrite it so the rain is an ally or an antagonist in a surprising way. Write at least three versions.

Before and After: Rewriting Weather Lines

Here are common lazy lines with rewrites that add specificity and color. Use these models to learn a rewrite pattern.

Before: It was raining and I was sad.

After: Rain dragged its shoelaces through my mailbox and read the letters I pretended were mine.

Before: The sun reminded me of you.

After: The sun stole my window glass and left your laugh taped to the frame where it could not leave.

Before: The wind took my breath away.

After: Wind stole my last cigarette and left an apology on the stoop written in cold.

Reasoning

Each after line replaces an abstract weather effect with a small human action or object. The images are unpredictable and specific. They also open up stories the listener can imagine happening before or after the line.

Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

• Mistake You use weather as lazy metaphor only. Fix by adding a small domestic object or action to ground the image.
• Mistake You write weather clichés. Fix by running the cliché through the camera pass and replace abstract words with tactile verbs.
• Mistake Prosody feels off. Fix by speaking lines aloud and matching stressed syllables to beats.
• Mistake The chorus is busy. Fix by simplifying the chorus to one clear line that sums the emotional vow and repeating it as a ring phrase.
• Mistake Production competes with lyrics. Fix by pulling back instruments or carving a frequency hole in the mix so the vocal can be heard.

Metadata and Pitching Tips for Weather Songs

When you are ready to pitch or upload a song, smart metadata and a short context note help playlist curators and supervisors find your track.

• Title Use something evocative and short. Titles that include a weather word can help with playlist placement if the song really is about weather. Avoid generic Titles like Rain Song unless the lyric has a twist.
• Tags On streaming platforms use tags like mood sad, weather, rainy day, storm, sunny, chill. Each platform uses different tag systems. Tags are user interface text not secret code.
• Pitches When emailing supervisors mention concrete sync cues. For example say This is a 2 minute 30 second slow ballad that fits scenes of a custody exchange in rain. That is specific and useful.
• Explain acronyms If you include technical terms like BPM explain them. BPM stands for beats per minute. It tells a producer the tempo of the song. Use plain language when pitching so non musical decision makers can understand.

Real Life Scenarios for Song Ideas

Use real situations for emotional truth. Here are story seeds based on weather that you can expand into verses or full songs.

• You meet an ex under a broken streetlamp during a thunderstorm. The lamp keeps flickering like someone trying to remember a name.
• A heatwave breaks when a truck filled with ice cream stalls at your block. People become kinder because of cold cones and the sun has to share the stage.
• A foggy morning at the train station where a person misses their stop and discovers a letter in their coat they do not remember writing.
• Snow at a wedding where someone does not arrive. The guests throw snow at each other like they are afraid the cold will catch feelings.

Useful Terms and Acronyms Explained

We explained some earlier but here is a short reference with examples you can use right away.

• POV Stands for point of view. It tells you who is telling the story. First person uses I. Second person uses you. Third person describes a character as they. Real life example imagine a lyric in second person telling someone to close the window and stop waiting for the storm to apologize.
• BPM Beats per minute. The speed of a song. A rain lullaby might be 60 BPM. A wind blown punk song might be 170 BPM. Use the number to indicate tempo when pitching.
• Prosody Matching lyrical stress to musical beats. We did this exercise above. Always do it before recording.
• Hook The most memorable part of the song. It can be a short chorus line or a melodic phrase. If your weather idea is the song core make the hook revolve around that line so listeners can sing it back.
• Sync Short for synchronization. It means placing your song in visual media like TV and film. When pitching a weather song for sync give specific scene suggestions so supervisors can imagine the fit.

Action Plan: Write a Weather Lyric Today

1. Pick an emotional promise. Write one sentence in plain speech. Example I will not call you even when it storms.
2. Choose literal or metaphorical weather for the song. Commit and write three images that match the choice. Example puddles, a lost umbrella, an empty diner window.
3. Do the camera pass on those three images. Make sure every image has an action and an object.
4. Write a chorus that states the promise with a short singable line. Keep it to one to three lines.
5. Draft verse one with the smallest image. Use time stamp or place crumb. Record a rough demo. Speak the lines and check prosody. Fix until stressed syllables match beats.
6. Write verse two with escalation or contrast. Add a small twist like the missing glove was never yours. Keep the world specific.
7. Write a bridge that flips perspective or reveals consequence. Consider pulling production back to one instrument and a field recording of rain.
8. Run the crime scene edit on the full lyric. Remove the abstract, add tactile detail, and keep the chorus as the main memory hook.

Pop Culture and Sync Angles

Weather songs can be placed in lots of media. Here are common uses and how to tag your pitch.

• Romantic montage Search terms like rainy day romance, break up in the rain, lovers walking in the city with umbrellas.
• Car scene Use wind and highway images. Tag as driving, storm, night.
• Interior drama Songs about a storm can underscore a fight scene or an emotional reveal. Tag as internal conflict, thunder, blackout.
• Family scene Snow songs are used for memory and nostalgia. Tag as quiet, home, winter kitchen.

Weather Lyric FAQ

How do I avoid sounding clich and still write about rain

Replace the abstract rain statement with a small object or action. Instead of The rain made me cry try The rain wrote your name on my sleeve and could not stop. The object and the verb make the image new. Add a time or place detail to anchor the line in reality.

Where is the best place to put weather imagery in a song

Verses are great for grounded weather scenes. Use the chorus if the weather is the emotional center. Use the bridge to reveal the human cause behind the storm. Always match the placement to what the listener needs to feel right now in the song.

Can weather be the hook even if it is not literal

Yes. A weather word can act like a title if it carries the emotional promise. Make the chorus simple and repeat the weather image as a ring phrase so it sticks. Repeat with a small lyrical variation on the last chorus for payoff.

What production elements make weather lyrics sound cinematic

Field recordings, reverb tails, and careful EQ to make space around the vocal are key. Use filtered white noise sweeps to suggest wind and low rumble samples for thunder. Remember less is more. The vocal should lead. Production should underline, not scream.

How do I use weather without being on the nose

Make weather a secondary object that reveals character. Instead of I was sad in the rain make the rain interact with something human like an unpaid parking meter or a closed bakery. The human detail will lend the weather credibility and make the emotion feel lived in.

Get Contact Details of Music Industry Gatekeepers

Looking for an A&R, Manager or Record Label to skyrocket your music career?

Don’t wait to be discovered, take full control of your music career. Get access to the contact details of the gatekeepers of the music industry. We're talking email addresses, contact numbers, social media...

Packed with contact details for over 3,000 of the top Music Managers, A&Rs, Booking Agents & Record Label Executives.

Get exclusive access today, take control of your music journey and skyrocket your music career.

Unlock Instant Access