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Apple’s weather app won’t say it’s 69 degrees

Apple’s weather app won’t say it’s 69 degrees

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It’s not so nice

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A weather forecast on iOS 15 compared to the rounded forecast on iOS 14.6
A weather forecast on iOS 15 compared to the rounded forecast on iOS 14.6
Photo: Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

If you’re an iPhone user, the weather is always a particularly nice 70 degrees. Or 68 degrees. Any temperature but 69 degrees, actually, because it turns out that the built-in weather app on some versions of iOS — including the current version, iOS 14.6 — will refuse to display the internet’s favorite number, even if the actual temperature in a given location is, in fact, 69 degrees, along with several other (less meme-able) numerals like 65 and 71 degrees.

Nice

It’s not clear if this is a bug or an intentional attempt from Apple to cut down on 69-related humor. The rounding is only visible in the weather app itself: clicking through to Apple’s source data from Weather.com will show the proper temperature, as do Apple’s home screen widgets. But the iOS weather app will refuse to show 69 degrees anywhere in the forecast, whether it’s for the current temperature, the hourly forecast for the day, or the extended forecast.

A possible explanation for the issue (as pointed out by several people on Twitter) is that Apple may be sourcing data for its iOS Weather app in Celsius and then converting it to Fahrenheit. For example, 20 degrees Celsius converts to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, while 21 degrees Celsius converts to 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit — which rounds up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The app appears to have similar issues with temperatures like 65 degrees (where 18 degrees Celsius converts to 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit, while 19 degrees Celsius is 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Weather app on iOS 14.6 (left) and the actual source data from The Weather Channel (right)

It’s not clear when Apple introduced the rounding here. A phone running iOS 11.2.1 shows accurate data of 69 degrees, as did phones running iOS 15, so it’s possible that the issue is specific to Apple’s most recent update (or has been identified and fixed already). Other weather sources, including Dark Sky — which is owned by Apple — have no issue displaying 69 degrees, either.

The Verge has reached out to Apple for additional comment.

Update, July 13th, 12:59PM ET: Added potential explanation for the error.