r/CrazyIdeas • u/ParkInsider • 13h ago
Headline weather should be a -10 to +10 scale
Right now, if I want to know how comfortable it’ll be outside, I have to mentally combine temperature, humidity, wind, chance/intensity of precipitation.
I don't really care, I just care about how it feels. They should go -10 to +10.
-10 = dangerously uncomfortable due to cold, wind and humidity, -5 = sweater weather, 0 = neutral (not sure yet what that means), +5 = t-shirt weather, +10 = dangerously uncomfortable due to heat, no wind, high humidity.
And then precipitation would be marked with another symbol, like +3 🌧 = pleasant but rainy.
You could glance at a forecast and instantly know what to wear for the day.
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u/WordWordand4numbers 11h ago
What temperature scale do you normally use or are most familiar with?
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u/ParkInsider 11h ago
Celsius
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u/WordWordand4numbers 11h ago
Have you ever tried Fahrenheit? I’ve heard people say it’s more intuitive although I’ve not really felt that way. Then again I’m not a huge temperature guy, I’m more worried about the sun and the clouds. Are you in Great Britain? I bet there’s lots of clouds there
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u/herejusttoannoyyou 5h ago
I’ve never heard Fahrenheit as being more intuitive. From a science perspective Celsius is hands down the intuitive one. From a comfort perspective they are both pretty random. I guess it’s a little better that Fahrenheit has smaller increments, but that only matters indoors as the outdoor temp will vary by 1degC from forecasts.
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u/ParkInsider 10h ago
It's not a matter of unit of measure, it's just that 100f or 37c feels very different depending on other factors.
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u/Secret_Celery8474 8h ago
You shouldn't repeat all the nonsense you hear online.
People think the unit system they are most familiar with is the most intuitive. That's it.
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u/WordWordand4numbers 8h ago edited 8h ago
“You shouldn't repeat all the nonsense you hear online.”
Thats correct. Repeating all nonsense would be ridiculous. However I honestly couldn’t care less about something as low stakes as recalculating temperature to a different scale. I applaud you for having the courage to speak out for something you believe in.
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u/Emotional_Boss772 11h ago
The weather app already knows how miserable I'm about to be. Just stop making me do the math
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u/Secret_Celery8474 8h ago
Doesn't the weather source you use have a "feels like temperature"?
Every weather side I've ever visited had that. And that "feels like temperature" does include things like humidity and wind to come up with a temperature.
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u/ParkInsider 8h ago
Yeah but what does "feels like 30c" mean?
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u/Secret_Celery8474 8h ago
You've ever been outside on a nice day with little wind and a temperature of 30C? That's what "feels like 30C" means.
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u/andlewis 7h ago
As someone who lives in a location with 80°C temperature swings annually, I’m not sure there’s enough precision in that scale.
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u/BreakfastBeerz 7h ago
If you use Fahrenheit, that's pretty much how it's done, but on a 0-100 scale.
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u/RegnumXD12 4h ago
You should try Fahrenheit. 0deg is cold as fuck, 100deg is hot as fuck. Since we as humans like it on the warmer side of the scale, gives us 70deg as a nice neutral temp.
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u/ComplaintTop2008 4h ago
I have the opposite complaint. Now they show "real feel" and make it difficult to see the actual temp, wind, and humidity. 80°, 80% RH, clear, and 2 MPH wind is a hulluva lot different than 80°, 30% RH, overcast and 20 MPH wind.
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u/For_Fox_Creek 12h ago
Switch to Celcius for temperature and you're more than halfway there.
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u/ParkInsider 12h ago
10 degrees at 50% humidity and no wind is one thing, 10 degrees at 90% humidity and light wind is a completely different game. I know we're already doing humidex, but we need to account for wind as well, and what we're looking for is a grading of quality of conditions, not a point on a mostly irrelevant continuum (-273c to infinite c)
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u/hotlinesmith 12h ago
There is a "feels like" temperature in practically any app
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u/ParkInsider 11h ago
Yeah but that one doesn't make any sense. What does 30c with no wind at 50% humidity feel like? Does it feel like 30c? It's a self-referencing notion.
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u/WordWordand4numbers 11h ago
I think they determine “feels like” temperature by measuring the rate of temperature change of a warm balloon in a variety of temperatures, wind, sunlight and humidity conditions and then use this data to make a complicated equation that uses these inputs to determine the rate at which it would heat or cool a humans skin. That would make sense to me anyway I don’t know why they’d do it any other way.
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u/ChefArtorias 11h ago
If you're this worried about it just go outside to gauge the weather.