![]() So that’s what those numbers are-yesterday’s guesses. What I observe is that most weather apps and websites “lock in” the predicted temperature range and precipitation for a given day at the beginning of the day, even though they were made yesterday and we have better data now. I’m going to look at today’s prediction, obviously!Īnd yet, for some reason, people who develop weather apps (and websites) seem to imagine that this logic no longer applies after midnight (or some other arbitrary hour, which isn’t specified). I don’t care what someone thought a week ago that’s now irrelevant. So, if I want to find out what the weather will be like tomorrow, I’m not going to look at a prediction from last week. In most cases, the more recent a prediction is, the more accurate it is. As conditions change, the predictions have to be updated. The thing about weather predictions is that they’re just that: predictions. If it’s currently raining, or if it rained this morning, then clearly the chance of rain today is 100%. If it is now 88☏, then ipso facto, today’s high temperature is at least 88☏. Of course, I know nothing about what goes on behind the scenes with people designing weather apps, licensing weather data, or discussing what their users may expect or prefer. As for the second theory, the most evident flaw is that the numbers aren’t labeled as (yesterday’s) predictions for all the user knows, they were intended as real-time estimates. In my particular case, I know the first theory does not apply, because the app in question, Weather Underground for iOS, is owned and distributed by The Weather Channel, which means it has plenty of its own data-and that data is updated every 15 minutes. Maybe the developer wants users to see the predicted temperature, by way of transparency-even if reality has shown it to have been far off. Perhaps the app licenses data from a third party, and a condition of the license is that the data remain unaltered. Responses varied from strong agreement to reasons why developers might be doing it “wrong.” Two interesting theories appeared as to why an app might show a high temperature for the day that’s significantly below the actual current temperature: Weather app developers: if your app says that today’s high is 83° and that the current temp is 88°, your code has a logic problem. ![]() A couple of weeks ago on Twitter, I complained thus:
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