Submitted 3 hours ago by dr_scientist@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/46ffc5c9-dc9f-480b-8268-d29c103f550c.jpeg
During our heatwave here in the EU, I’ve noticed that Apple is getting more and more generous in what the temperature is supposed to be. Here it is pictured side by side with the actual, measured temperature via a Kestrel 2000.
I suspect that this is AI being its usual solicitous self, continually making it better for people asking, ‘Is it cooler on the coast?’ It ain’t, by the way, same here as it is in Paris. That’s my theory, but I’m open to all conspiratorial suggestions.
I doubt that Apple is running your local weather station.
France Météo is reporting 29°. I guess I should have said that.
Feels like OP thinks that iPhone has an built-in thermometer. It has not. AFAIK, no phone has that. All weather data is taken from internet.
A Kestral 2000 is a live thermometer. Doesn’t it seem weird that Apple is off by this much.
Did you read what I wrote? The phone doesn’t have a thermometer. Yes, it’s strange that it’s off, but I don’t know where Apple gets its weather data from.
My last phone from 2018 had like 48 sensors on it, including thermometer, so yeah that indeed is a thing. But obviously OP’s photo is showing Apple pulling numbers out of thin air from whatever weather station, not from any internal sensors.
So, I don’t know how European weather reporting works, but if it’s like the US, the temperature that they’re reporting for your area may be for wherever your local weather station is (probably your local airport?), which may well differ from that at your house or wherever you’re taking the picture.
I’m fairly sure they try to model weather as the France Météo service reported 29°, and it changed by 5° as I got closer to the coast.
So, I don’t use iOS devices, and I’m not in Europe, so I can’t provide a lot of first-hand data on your particular widget. I’m just saying that that’s how the weather software I’ve used in the past across a number of platforms works.
Regarding your change as you traveled towards the coast, if they’re choosing the closest weather station to your location, though, you’d expect the weather station in question to shift as you travel.
If they are reporting temperature at a weather station and if this database here represents the weather station set that is used (again, I don’t know, not familiar with weather reporting in Europe):
eea.europa.eu/…/locations-of-stations-with-temper…
Then it looks like France is operating far fewer weather stations than some other countries in Europe, which might tend to cause more average deviation between a given location of someone checking the weather and the conditions at the local weather station being used.
and it changed by 5° as I got closer to the coast.
🤦
That’s not how you’re supposed to measure temperature
I’m genuinely surprised by the negative reaction to this post, so I’m going to try to explain why I made it.
I’m aware of microclimates, and changes in local temperature, and shade and sun and so on. I took the temperature in the shade just now, away from structures, in the garden, and it was 33°. I should have done that initially, but this was not meant to be about my being crazy. This was meant to be about the future of how we can expect temperatures to be measured and then delivered to the public.
Recently, we have had a heatwave in the EU, the 'heat dome’. You probably heard that before. Once rare, now rather common, it inverts the traditional climate where the coast is temperate and the inland is warmer.
If we are using models that ignore these new conditions, there is a risk of under-reporting actual temperatures and not taking the very serious climate emergency more seriously. The use of AI, and its documented nature of trying to please the user, concerns me in the face of gathering data for any government body trying to accurately document what is happening.
I’m sorry if I seemed crazy. I’m just concerned.
Just look at all that hard surface around you, a giant heat sink.
And you wonder why the temp there is higher?
are you in the shade ?
outside temp is reported from temps taken in the shade
OP is standing in the middle of a bunch of hard surfaces - you know, the kind of thing that soaks up heat and releases it slowly over time.
I mean so much logic fail with OP.
The Kestral 2000 measures air temperature. I measured it in both, but took the photo in the sun.
I was literally wondering if Google was doing this yesterday because all week it felt way hotter than tge temp it was suggesting; i wish i had had a thermometer available to compare.
i might pick one up or even just compare different sources.
vk6flab@lemmy.radio 3 hours ago
Have you considered that the temperature displayed by the phone comes from the internet, rather than an onboard thermometer?
dr_scientist@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Yes, but undereporting by 10° is a lot.
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 49 minutes ago
It really depends on what you are comparing against. A temperature taken in direct sunlight at human height in a paved parking lot is going to be well over 10 degrees different than a grassy area shaded by a building. Even if they are adjacent areas. Proximity to a large body of water can easily change the temperature by 5-10 degrees.
A weather app is going to present a temperature that trys to average all of that for a fairly wide area.
vk6flab@lemmy.radio 2 hours ago
Temperature is measured like this:
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-28/…/106277628
starlinguk@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Apple “overreports” on mine. Because they get their temperature from the business park down the hill. It’s cooler where I am.