If you want to engage in small talk in Spanish, you should learn to chat about the weather "el clima" or "el tiempo". In our travel video from Mexico City (a.k.a. D.F., or Distrito Federal), some local friends share many helpful nuggets for prattling on about the temperature, rain, global warming -- three common topics of conversation pretty much anywhere in the world. For example, regarding the temperature:

Yo diría, templado... Eh... un clima ni muy caliente ni muy frío.

I'd say, mild... Uh... a climate neither too warm nor too cold.

Captions 5-6, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF

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And just a few captions later, on what falls from the skies:

Un poco de lluvias, este... este... chispeadas... a veces, en ocasiones granizo...

Some rain, um... drizzles... Sometimes, occasionally hail...

Captions 9-10, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF

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Or, if you want to discuss the melting glaciers:

Con el relajo este del calentamiento global... los... los climas se disparan un poco.

With this global warming mess... the... climates get a little out of control.

Captions 11-12, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF

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Later in the video clip, we're let in on a little rhyme about the weather. In English you may know "April's showers bring May's flowers." Well, in Mexico, we hear:

De hecho hay un dicho que dice: "enero loco, febrero otro poco."

In fact, there's a saying that goes, "January is crazy, February, a bit too."

Captions 28-29, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF

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BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Sniffing around for some more catchy phrases, we found this website of Refranes sobre los meses del año. (Incidentally, they cite the same phrase but pushed ahead by a month, febrero loco, marzo otro poco.)