Asking about the weather

Question

¿Qué tiempo hace hoy? as written above is (according to my teacher from South America who speaks a high standard of Latin American Spanish) not a proper way to ask about the weather. He suggests ¿Cómo está el tiempo hoy?  which is consistent with other translators I've found. I am no longer confident about the level of Spanish being taught in this program. Are the instructors native speakers who learned in their native countries?

Accepted Answer

Hola Gigi
The suggestion given by your South American teacher is also correct to me (native Spanish speaker). It is simply a different way to ask. We could add more possible ways to ask this same thing:

¿Qué tal está el tiempo hoy?
¿Qué tiempo tenemos hoy?

For a native Spanish speaker the most common way to ask is the one suggested in the lesson. That may not be heard as much in Latin America because for them it may sound odd to use that expression and they may prefer to use the one you suggested, but it is still correct. Bear in mind that also within Latin America there are countries that use different expressions. One expression may be very common in Mexico while that same expression may not be very common in Venezuela, etc. 
All teachers in Kwiziq are native Spanish speakers from Spain, and we all learned the language in Spain. (Kwiziq team).
Un saludo
Inma

Answer

The is a website that is geared towards learning European Spanish not latin american so there are obviously going to be some differences.

Answer

To state that "it's not a proper way" sounds a little abrupt. Maybe, "he suggests using the way he says it" would be more preferable as there are a lot of "ways" and the "most common way" none of which are "wrong"!