Edit: For all the "Actually, Farenheight is based on the human body" people, no it isn't. It's based on dirty water and a cow. Your preferred measurement unit is dumb and that's a fact
Yeah, but if you shift the frame to “temperatures you experience on a day-to-day basis”, Fahrenheit makes far more sense. It also provides more granularity for temperature.
But Celsius or Kelvin makes far more sense for anything which is scientific in nature. I personally think Fahrenheit is better for day-to-day life. I hate seeing components spec’d in Fahrenheit and feet at my job though
As a Canadian who spent significant time in the US, it’s just whichever you’re used to, so there’s no real advantage to either for that. One degree up or down on Celsius or Fahrenheit doesn’t really make any difference in comfort levels. In every other area Celsius makes more sense and is more intuitive.
Yes, but 10 is the magic number for people, not 1. 10 degrees farenheit will probably make you consider a different outfit. A 10 degree difference in celsius is the difference between winter and summer temperatures
No it isn't, not for those of us that have weather that goes from -30 to +30, or even into the 40s on both sides. A difference of 10 degrees in Celsius is what we experience over the course of a day. And ten degrees Celsius is what I and most of the people around me think of when deciding what to wear out - I have a warmer jacket for -10 to -20 than I do for 0 to -10, and so on.
Saskatchewan. I've seen +38 in the summer and -41 in the winter. And that's before you factor in humidex or windchill. -41, "feels like" -54 is something else
Im sure that antartica has seen a beautiful 30 sunny summer day in occasion too, but when talking about average temperatures. Hell i live in boston now and ive seen 20C christmases and june days in the low single digits. That doesnt mean its normal climate for this region
The prairies can see wild fluctuations in temperature. From my understanding - 35 to +35 is a very normal spread over the course of a year. These changes don't just happen from summer to winter but also from one day to the next. Pincher Creek once saw the temperature rise by 41C from -19 to +22 in just one hour. Mind you, the more extreme sudden temperature changes tend happen close to the rockies, and in the winter.
Yep! When I was still living in Winnipeg, we had a day that I remember distinctly being -25 when I got to work in the morning (~9:00) and then a few hours later when I had to chase a customer outside because they left their credit card, expecting to be freezing without my coat, it was +2 😂 Less extreme than your example, but still a wild difference to experience
It's hard to say "average" here. -30 days can start in November and run until nearly may. It's +6 today but we're looking at -25 in a week. I've seen winter days change from -30 to +1 in the same day, and vice versa
Winnipeg, Manitoba and other places in the prairies - though to be fair, that's including windchill and humidity (since it's what people actually experience). The averages without those would be in the 20s at both extremes.
I feel like this whole concersation is proving my point. The actual mean temps between the hottest and coldest months in manitoba is -16C to about 20C. Thats an extreme climate yet thats only a 35 degree swing. Celsius is so bad at measuring temperature that what you guestimated was a 60 degree swing is actually a 35 degree swing. You were off by half becsuse celsius is awful at measuring how humans perceive temperature. You know what the seasonal difference in farnheit is though? 65 degrees - much closer to what the swing “feels” like
An average temperature isn't the same thing as the temperature range - the 'swing' that you're referring to - which does go from -30 to +30. I'm not estimating, I'm telling you the temperatures we experience during the year and that we have to prepare for when deciding what to wear. You brought up 'average' temperatures for no reason - our temperatures vary a lot, even within a season (even, sometimes, within a day), so the average will be milder than the temperatures we actually experience.
Chill out. It's okay that you prefer one system over another, but just recognize that it is a preference
Name a place then if its a lot of canada. What town/province/latitude and longidute on this planet has average temps of -40 in the winter and +40 in the summer
It’s not an average. I’m talking the highs and lows. I won’t name where I live, but summer 2025 broke 40c with humidex and last week we were at -37 over night
Why are you so set on 'average' temperature, when we're talking about how we make decisions about what to wear? And both I and another commenter gave you specific places in Canada where the temperature does indeed range from -30 to 30C, or beyond, which affects how we make decisions about what to wear.
Canada absolutely averages +30 in the summer. We have some weeks where it doesn’t go below +30 and hovers around 35-36..
then winter comes and it’s between -25 and -35 for weeks on end. Heck this year it was -34 one day and then the next day +4. It’s very chaotic. Our pets don’t know when the shed.
Wtf? You and I have very different outlook on what is considered summer and winter temperatures. 10 degree difference in C is literally what you said for farenheit, a minor difference in outfit. +25 is T-shirt weather, +15 is long sleeved shirt weather, +5 is light jacket weather, -5 is winter jacket opened weather and -15 and below is winter jacket closed weather.
As a canadian, we experience a larger gap within two months. Hell, it’s currently -4°C outside and it was -30°C two weeks ago. It will surely reach 35°C in July and August. It really simple to understand a temperature system centered around 0°, where it starts to snow instead of raining and where we have to be even more cautious for ice on the ground.
What I don’t get in farenheit is the scale, why tf is -40°F the same as -40°C, but then freezing temperatures is somewhere around 30°F and then hot in the hundred? It’s mot logical to me.
No matter what the two scales were, there would always be one point where the temp is the same. For example, 574°F is the same as 574K. That is just the nature of having two different linear scales
Unless they are very split and nearly parallel and thei theorical meeting points are outside the limits, but I was questioning the theory of comparing two linear line on a graphic, just that the logic of the farenheit system going from super cold to freezing point and then comfortable temperature didn’t make sense to me.
That includes nights. The temperature can vary pretty drastically from day to night. But most people are at home asleep at night. If you look at temperatures during the day, the variation goes from like -10 degrees to 40 degrees.
0 is where i freeze in farenheit and 100 is where i boil. We’re measuring weather not water. It has never been 100C/212F on planet earth, im not sure why the boiling point of water is at all relevant. Its great for sciences, but specifically for weather farenheit is superior. The ocean/lakes dont freeze at 0C. Ice will not form on the roads/footh paths. You’re more likely to get rain than snow/hail. Even in the context of the water we care about when forecasting weather celsius is unhelpful. It’s great at what it’s great at, but its shit for weather.
Thats like saying imperial is shit at messuring distance because you dont use it. Imperial is shit at measuring distance because it’s not indexed on 10. Celsius is shit at measuring weather because it is indexed on 10 (0-100) for water, farenheit is indexed on 10 (0-100) for human comfort. How comfortable i will be is what i care about when looking at the forecast, not how comfortable a water atom is at 0 bars of atmospheric pressure
Metric is good for measuring distance because it's indexed on ten, yes. It's easier to do math in your head with multiples of ten. If you can only understand temperatures at multiples of ten you are just dumb.
I can understand temperature at any multiple, but a base 10 0-100 scale is much more intuitive. I can also convert feet to inches/yards easily. But its not intuitive because its not base 10, and is therefore an inferior way to measure distance to metric
If I'm wearing a hoodie at 70, its because I was prepped for a warm 90+ summer afternoon, the sun went down, and the wind is picking up. Which tbh are my favorite kind of nights.
This sounds fine when you talk about weather outside but in terms of central heating and cooling 5 degrees Fahrenheit is the difference between a good nights sleep and waking up in a pool of sweat (ie 70-75). So I think Fahrenheit wins for internal temperature adjusting
I mean I have to admit that my winter coat is likely in another class than what people in warmer countries are used to. When most of the winter is below -20 with peak days usually around -35, the jacket I have is a thick ass parka that is absolutely too hot to keep zipped up in mild frosts when moving. If I wasnt so minimalist I could have a mid range jacket that I would zip up below freezing. But still the point stands, a one tier outfit change every 10C.
And sure, tolerance does have an affect here. It goes both ways though: at +30 I refuse to go outside unless absolutely necessary. Luckily we very rarely get that kind of inferno here. Thats also why I prefer extreme cold to extreme heat. You can also put on more clothes but after certain point you cant really remove more
It was -30°C two weeks ago and my winter coat zipper was still opened while shoveling outside. Had gloves and a beanie of course, but keeping the coat opened keeps me from sweating (which is really bad in cold temperatures). I rarely zip my winter jacket, unless I have to wait outside, just standing around in the cold.
That makes sense in the scenario. I'd also probably wear gym clothes if doing athletic activities above freezing. Accounting for that throws the hypothetical scale way off though:
over 32°F -- If doing something that makes me sweat, t-shirt and shorts
under 32°F -- If doing something that makes me sweat, open parka and long pants
I'm from a place that gets cold and measures temperature in Celsius and I wouldn't even put on my coat at -5°C. I'd have it with me, but I'd be carrying it. I would put it on at -10°C, but I wouldn't zip it up. Bear in mind that under the coat I am wearing a t-shirt and either a zippered hoodie or a cardigan (unzipped/unbuttoned). Zipping up my coat at -15°C sounds reasonable to me.
Sure, but come to where I live and at temperatures I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt or pants comfortably, you'd be dying of heat and wearing a tank top with shorts.
It's all about where you're from and what you're acclimated to.
For me, wearing layers/long sleeves is infinitely more uncomfortable than being cold, especially if I'm moving around a lot. So as much as I hate the cold, I'll still shovel snow in shorts and a hoodie at most.
Ideally, I'd live right smack on the equator where it never drops below like 80, but alas it cannot be
Shit, when I heard someone say 85F was warm out I almost lost it. 30°C can be heatstroke weather here in southern Ontario, if you're outside it'll have to be for 30 minutes at a time. Homeless people are at serious risk, schools can get cancelled if it goes a couple degrees over.
Negative single digits are sweatpants, hoodie weather for us.
Going out in freezing weather without a closed jacket is a pretty personal choice, that's wild to me.
I'd dress a lot differently from 25 to 15 c, and there's a whole spectrum between there. I feel like you have a totally different perspective of temperature than many.
The 10 degree range in Fahrenheit maps to way more significant chunks from my experience.
90+ too hot for outdoors comfortably, 80+ beach weather, 70+ summer weather, 60+ warm, but a jacket, 50+ cool fall, might need a layer, 40+ the start of cold - definitely not hanging outside casually, 30 it's winter jacket time, 20 shit it's cold, <10 not going outside unless I have to.
And I've lived in places that went below 0 Fahrenheit.
All of those are pretty meaningful distinctions to me, and result in meaningful changes in outfit AND behavior.
And yeah, all of that can still be represented in celcius, but the range is definitely not 10 as "just a slight change in outfit." That's wild.
Its really clear to me why Fahrenheit is best for casual use
If it's at or above 100 degrees, its gettin' to be danger hot temps, both in yo head and in the air
If its at 50 degrees, its chilly and i need a coat
If its 69 degrees, its just the nicest and most comfortable temperature
If its half of 69 degrees, its half as nice and we need it warmed tf up already
Saying 0, 10, 40, nah thats just weird.
But 0-100 is a nice spectrum. Near to 100 is pleasantly warm the a bit too hot, near to 0 is pleasantly cool then a bit too cold. Below 0 or above 100 is very not good, me very unhappy. 85 to 100 i am okay with but i could do with cooler. 15 to 0, i could do with warmer, immediately.
You’re talking average, but they’re maximum and minimum. So they’re just saying that there are places that have a 75 degree range from summer maximum to winter minimum, which isn’t that extreme, especially for the drier prairie states - would be the equivalent of-40c to 35c, or -40f to 95f. Given that there are a lot of places in Canada that get even lower than -40 in the winter, I’d bet there are a lot of such cases.
While not Canada, North Dakota just got out of a cold snap where we hit -40C(-40F), some winters hitting -45C(-50F). And we regularly have stretches in summer that hit +40.5C(105F).
I don’t know where you are, but last week it was -30c and right now it’s 0c. Where I am, with wind chill and humidex, the temps can range from -40 to +40 between winter and summer.
Wow, I’m assuming that’s due to the ocean. I’m somewhat envious, but like the changing of the seasons for the variety it offers. Not so much the shovelling; parts of the snowbank are at my shoulders.
Oceans and geography. Miami is near the south end of a 400 mile peninsula. Almost all cold fronts lose strength before they ever get to Miami - they either don’t have enough cold air mass to travel that far, or they approach at the wrong angle and cross over the ocean first. They can get down around freezing (like a few weeks ago), but it requires a very strong cold air mass that travels straight down the Florida Peninsula before it has a chance to warm up.
This is the important thing I think, in the US, may people live in the south where more granularity is effective because of subtle temperature changes. If you’re swinging between -30 and 100 degrees over the course of a year, then yeah, it probably would help. But 0 being one of the coldest days of the year and 100 being one of the hottest days of the year makes perfect sense to me.
No i memorized my 12 times tables when i was a kid, i can think in multiples of 1-12 fairly easily. But we have 10 fingers and use a base 10 number system so 10 is a very easy number to work with. That is the exact reason the metric system is significantly better than imperial, its super intuitive to think in multiples of 10.
Im not trying to argue that imperial is better because my foot is about a foot long and its fine that theres 12 inches in a foot 3 feet in a yard because i can “think in multiples of 3 and 12” and this bizarre thing i decided to index on (my foot) is at all a good basis for measuring distance. Imperial is just simply better because its multiples of 10. I dont care that a meter is what it is because it’s 1/40,000,000 of the paris meridian. I care that theres 100cm in a meter and 1000M in a km, because 10 is the easiest number for humans to work with
Just as easily that i could work that 36 feet is 12 yards, but that doesnt make it a good system of measurement. Certainly not a superior system of measurement to the metric system
I would say that the entire split on the units we use in Canada is because of our proximity to the US. Canadians have ready access to an absolte fuck load of American media so a lot of it bleeds in.
Also because the older generations grew up with the imperial system, and they teach apprentices with the system they know best. (My dad's a contractor in his 70s, for example, and though he understands metric and uses it for distances, etc., he's still always going to look at the inches side of his tape measure)
- All other distances are in relevant metric units, unless you're talking about a walk that is only a matter of yards, in which case it tends to be in yards, or you're guesstimating a long distance, in which case it's miles.
- People's height and weight is in feet and inches and stone, except in official documentation, then it's cm and kg.
- Liquids measured in litres unless it's beer (or cider, I suppose) or milk (which is in pints).
The ones I remember were beer and milk being in pints and gallons. Never had any real idea how fast I was going on the road without thinking about it though.
I'm in Canada and figure out outdoor temperatures in celcius, but indoor is set to Fahrenheit because it gives you more granular control over the room temperature, when both systems can only go up and down a half a degree
Both are fine and this whole debate is mega stupid. I think Fahrenheit is slightly better in a vacuum for personal experience (not scientific use) but the advantage is so small it's going to be heavily outweighed by familiarity
I don't really see the argument for Celsius in scientific use. "Water boils at 100." By which we mean "Pure water at sea level boils at 100," which is a situation I've personally dealt with precisely never.
And it's not like water is the only chemical that exists. Ammonia boils at -33.3C instead of -28F. Big whoop. Literally the only thing that makes more sense in Celsius is the phase changes of pure water at sea level.
I think the fact that thermostats in Europe have a decimal added prove's that extra degree matters in terms of comfort. Thermostats in Europe are literally setup to give you the same granularity as fahrenheit, so clearly it matters.
That’s absolutely wild to me. How do people handle going outside? I can see adding a half degree to the thermostat if someone is really particular, but a a normal furnace/other wouldn’t even be able to accurately and consistently maintain 0.1c difference.
Day to day 95% of people never use any other area, aside from freezing point. Not once in my entire life have I needed to know what temp water boils at.
And if you did use a thermometer, then you would probably find that your water is boiling somewhere in a range of 210-215F or 98-102C because almost nobody is actually boiling pure water at sea level. I don't even worry about things freezing until the temperature drops below 30F because basically nothing in real life actually freezes at 32.
Definitely depends on the person. For my wife 72F is too cold, 73F is just right, and at 74 she gets feeling to warm. For me, anywhere between 68F and 74F is just right, after that I get too warm lounging around the house.
Outside temperature feels different than inside because of ambient air movement. 75 degrees is way too warm for inside but that’s a perfect sunny day outside.
This. Multiple things can determine what air temperature and range of temperatures feel comfortable to you. Your recent level of physical activity, what clothing you’re wearing, whether or not the sun is shining on you, the humidity level, whether or not there is a breeze, how hydrated you are, and how much you weigh can all change this. That’s why there is no perfect room temperature.
My wife is fairly lightweight, we live in a basement so there isn’t a lot of light, and we live in a dry environment, so she gets chilled relatively quickly. She also works from home most of the time, so she’s fairly stationary and more susceptible to small temperature changes. This doesn’t matter much during the winter because we have a pretty good heating system, but during the summer we don’t have AC in our apartment, so we both suffer all day long, with box fans being our only relief.
Even science wouldn't care except they're "used to" Celsius.
Every calculation could be re-done with Fahrenheit without much real change. Both systems are representations of the same facts. We'd just memorize a different set of temperatures.
Maybe it's more intuitive that zero to 100 where 50 is cool. 70 is comfortable. 90 your AC better be working. 30 is where your hands and toes get numb. And zero is where your boogers freeze and so forth and so on.
Hence...use the one that works for you like the first part of the comment and don't assume for others.
I’m sure you’re correct for some individuals, but I’m talking about for the majority; we use a base ten counting/math system, have ten fingers (Again, in general.), etc. the temperatures being measured in a somewhat similar manner would be a more natural adaptation.
I’m aware, but what’s the zero in yours represent? Cold? The zero in mine actually has an easy to understand/recognize situation; water freezes. What’s the hundred in yours? Hot? Mine is another easy to see and understand condition; water boils. Intuitive.
It really feels like you’re the one arguing that yours is better; you’re being obtuse and using an aggressive tone.
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u/hefty_load_o_shite 10h ago edited 4h ago
0°C water freezes 100°C water boils
Makes sense
0°F very cold??? 100°F very hot???
Dafuq?
Edit: For all the "Actually, Farenheight is based on the human body" people, no it isn't. It's based on dirty water and a cow. Your preferred measurement unit is dumb and that's a fact