Schmuddelwetter means bad weather, basically. And with bad weather we mean that kind of bad weather where the rain is a light drizzle that is coming from everywhere.

That kind of weather where the clouds might as well be covering the ground, you can’t see anything and there’s a light drizzle as well.

As that description might suggest, the word Schmuddelwetter comes from northern Germany, where such weather is no rarity. But in the summer of 2023, one of the wettest in recent history, it’s been increasingly common to experience it in all corners of the country.

READ ALSO: July weather in Germany was ‘too warm and wet’

It literally translates to “dirty/foul/filthy weather.”

Schmuddel comes from the Low German word smuddeln, which means “to go about unclean.”

However, this is just the word that is used in the northern parts of Germany. In other parts, there are other words for it.

Examples for this are Hundewetter (“dog weather”), Sauwetter (“pig weather”), Mistwetter (“muck weather”) or, if you are in a really bad mood, Scheißwetter (“shit weather.”)

One reader told us that his friends also use the neologism “Englischwetter” to jokingly refer to his home country when the weather is less than perfect – to put it euphemistically. We think that the translation of this doesn’t require an explanation.

READ ALSO: 10 essential phrases to complain about the weather like a true German

Examples:

Was für ein Schmuddelwetter…

What filthy weather…

Ich bin ungerne in Hamburg, weil dort so oft so ein Schmuddelwetter ist.

I don’t really like being in Hamburg, because there’s such filthy weather most of the time.

Don’t miss any of our German words and expressions of the day by downloading our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the German Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.