The temperature outside is never the sexiest number, according to Apple’s weather app.
The Verge reported Wednesday that, on certain iOS versions, Apple’s native weather app will never report the temperature as being 69 degrees — even when it is. It may be 70 degrees and then drop to 68, but users can be sure that whatever the weather, it will never be 69 degrees according to their phone’s go-to weather report.
While the problem is possibly a puritan censoring of the numerical sex act, tech sleuths were quick to point out that the blacklisting of 69-degree weather is more likely a software glitch — or a conversion issue.
“Most likely a rounding error,” one Twitter user argued, pointing out that if the weather app is sourcing Celsius-based data and then converting it to Fahrenheit, certain degrees of Fahrenheit, including 69, end up being skipped over. Since 20 degrees Celsius converts to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and 21 degrees Celsius converts to 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit — high enough that it would be rounded up to 70 by the app — 69 degrees Fahrenheit functionally ceases to exist as a possible temperature. Not nice!
The same goes for the less memorable temperatures of 65, 67, 71 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit. A former Apple engineer even created an entire chart showing what Fahrenheit temperatures aren’t reported when converting from Celsius.
Another possibility is that it’s simply a software error of some kind, as the weather app is currently getting an interface update.
Indeed, only iPhones running the most recent version of the app had issues getting it to show 69-degree weather. Phones running iOS 11.2.1 and iOS 15 accurately showed when it was 69 degrees, the Verge reported. Weather.com, where Apple sources the app’s data from, as well as Apple’s home screen widgets also showed when it was 69 degrees without issue.
Apple did not return The Post’s request for comment.
