As we once again enter the Celsiheit season, that uniquely British time of year, where temperatures become so warm that some assume that a switch to the larger numbers of the old Fahrenheit scale is required, the BBC has dashed any hope that 2025 might be the year when Fahrenheit is finally consigned to the history books of UK weather forecasting.
BBC TV weather forecast – 2025-05-14
Yesterday’s weather forecast included a large number “25” on the screen, which the presenter unflinchingly pointed at to inform us was “77 Fahrenheit”.
Back in 1962, when the Met Office switched to the Celsius scale for all weather reports, the BBC followed suit with what was presumed would be a gradual phasing out of Fahrenheit. Indeed, all weather map visuals have been in degrees Celsius-only since the 1960s.
However, if this YouTube video is typical of BBC TV weather forecasts at the time, viewers would have had every excuse to have been confused during the initial years of the changeover, with numbers on the screen being in one system, and the presenter speaking about temperatures exclusively in another system.
In fact the changeover was so slow that by the early 1970s, it was clear to outside observers that a long drawn-out period of dual-units was not the way to proceed when switching to new measurement units.
Other Commonwealth countries, that were planning to make the switch at that time, learned from the British experience. In 1972, when Australia switched to the Celsius scale, they elected to change to Celsius on a single day, or M-day – 1 September 1972. Canada also opted to switch to Celsius on a single day – 1 April 1975.
The following extract from an Australian public information leaflet, published in 1972, clearly references the British experience when it talks about “overseas experience”:
“Temperature reports in public advices issued by the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia’s official weather service, will be only in degrees Celsius from September 1.
…
The Bureau does not favour a dual system of publication because overseas experience has revealed that this makes it harder for people to adapt to the new unit.Some news media may wish to use a dual system for a limited time period, but it is expected this will be discontinued from September 1.
If temperature were expressed in both units every day, the public would find it difficult to learn Celsius.”
Although many, if not most, TV weather forecasts are now thankfully in degrees Celsius-only, over the decades, it has become impossible to watch any weather forecast without a sense of foreboding that at any moment the presenter will break your flow of thought and in effect tell you that the numbers you are looking at are not what they appear.
It seems that in 2025, more than 60 years after the UK’s official switch to the Celsius scale, this tortuous practice is set to continue.
BBC TV weather forecast – 2025-05-14
Having seen the the Mirriam-Webster dictionary definition for the word “gaslighting” – a particularly cruel and drawn-out form of mental tortue, it seems that this word aptly describes what has been going on for the last 60 years and more.
“gaslighting – psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator”
- causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts – being told that 16 is 61, and 25 is 77 seems to be a good example.
- usually over an extended period of time – this has been taking place for over 60 years.
- typically leads to confusion – an apt description of the state where visuals have been in Celsius-only for over 60 years, yet temperatures continue to be spoken of in Fahrenheit.
References
Australian experience – M-days
Metric Views 
A very interesting article. As it happens I responded to the current BBC questionnaire just after that weather report by Louise Lear, so I was a bit hyped up at that time.
UK pretends to be a modern country ready to do business with the whole world, but who is going to trust us with this pathetic mess crippling the nation? More to the point I do not see how we can begin to be competitive when a large proportion of the work force talk, think work in different units.
The really pathetic situation is that the media, MP’s, NHS collectively, educators, Police, councillors and pretty much anyone in effective authority seem not to understand the importance of a coherent and unified measuring environment.
As an octogenarian I have been on this bandwagon the whole 60 years and beyond, It certainly befuddles my mind. Only yesterday we had a water leak in gallons, when were they last in common use other that MPG which probably very few indeed would be able to extract useful information from? Neither gallons nor miles mean much to me now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This morning I looked at the weather column in the Daily Mail (paper version) on the assumption that the Daily Mail represented one of the most anti-metric newspapers in the country. I saw that degrees Celsius was the only unit of temperature for the UK’s daily forecast, but that the reports of yesterday’s noon temperatures around the globe was given in both degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit.
I tis heartening t see that the print edition of the Daily Mail (unlike its on-line edition) only uses degrees Celsius for UK forecasts but I do not know why they would use degrees Fahrenheit when reporting yesterday’s temperature in Barcelona. Grudgingly I acknowledge that there is a case to report yesterday’s temperature for Miami in both Fahrenheit and Celsius as public temperature displays in Miami are usually in Fahrenheit.
Maybe the Daily Mail would do its readers a service if they were to omit the Fahrenheit readings for all but US cities on grounds that those are the only cities where Fahrenheit is used.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This response is to both Brian & Martin.
Complaining to or about continued use of FFU in news reports is almost a useless effort. There are those in these organisations that feel empowered by such complaints. There are those that don’t care how much damage they do to either the organisation of the nation. They don’t care how many jobs or livelihoods they destroy. Complaining to them or about them only empowers them to be even more destructive.
The reason Martin is experiencing a difference between the printed and on-line editions is that they are managed by two different people. The person(s) that manages the printed edition is/are forward thinking and see no need to waste ink and space to include foreignheat units as everyone reading the printed edition already understands metric units. However, the person(s) managing the on-line edition sees a need to preserve foreignheat units and is/are using his or her position to promote his or her personal cause. With the on-line edition, this/these person(s) feel they can promote the wonders of foreignheat to a world-wide audience, not caring that the majority of people will ignore foreignheat or other non-metric units.
The lame excuse of having to appease the Americans is often given as a reason for continued use or inclusion of foreignheat of other non-metric units. Even if foreignheat is used in Miami, there is no reason to use it in the English or world press. It’s time the Americans learned what the rest of the world uses. Instead there is a perpetual fear of offending Americans by presenting them with metric information and pampering them with conversions is the only solution and a kindness to them. Hiding metric from them prevents them from making an effort to learn and always puts the majority metric user in an awkward position and disrupts the smooth flow of information.
LikeLike
I checked the units of measure used in the Daily Mail weather page. I chose that newspaper it is one of the more extreme national British anti-metric newspapers. The forecasts for the UK were all I degrees Celsius (together with pictograms of clouds, sunshine etc). The section list the previous day’s noon temperature for 72 cities around the world quoted by degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit. I dd an analysis if the Fahrenheit figures and found:
This suggests to me very strongly that the reading were originally recorded in degrees Celsius and then converted to degrees Fahrenheit, hence all the gaps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Isaac wrote:”Yesterday’s weather forecast included a large number “25” on the screen, which the presenter unflinchingly pointed at to inform us was “77 Fahrenheit”.”
There’s another way of looking at this: the presenter is pointing to the figure of 25 degrees on the screen but it is the text above, which is not spoken or read out, that includes the figure 77 Fahrenheit (let’s not talk about the missing degree symbol or word ‘degree’). I am assuming the presenter is saying ‘Whatever you’re thinking the temperature today will be and whatever the text above says, it will be 25 degrees today’, i.e. she is explaining what 25 degrees Celsius means to those dwindling few who cling on to Fahrenheit. Perhaps this is an example of the BBC fulfilling its educational remit! If it is, it’s a lame attempt. It would be better to drop Fahrenheit altogether and let the diehards work it out for themselves if, after 50 (!) years of reporting temperatures in degrees Celsius in Britain, they still don’t understand. Some people willfully refuse to understand. The BBC should not pamper them.
LikeLike
Here is one Canadian’s view of Fahrenheit vs Celsius and metric vs Imperial more generally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3A1urN4DEM
LikeLiked by 1 person
Re “Here is one Canadian’s view of Fahrenheit vs Celsius and metric vs Imperial more generally”:”
The speaker says that Fahrenheit set body temperature at the body temperature of his wife, which was 96 degrees. How was Fahrenheit able to measure his wife’s body temperature if he had not actually completed his invention of the Fahrenheit scale at that point? I have always understood that Fahrenheit wanted body temperature on his scale to be 100 degrees and used his own body for that purpose. (I don’t know how he would have done that.) But he apparently had an abnormally low body temperature, so what was supposed to be 100 degrees actually turned out to be 96 point something. Does that make the temperature scale not fit for purpose from the very start? I understand that in its day it was the only scale available and accurate measurement wasn’t perhaps as important as it is today. But why would any country continue to use this antiquated system when the much better system of Celsius based on the freezing and boiling point at sea level of the most natural thing on Earth – water – is available to us today?
LikeLike
@punditgi
Strange that Canada doesn’t require thermostats and ovens to use degrees Celsius, like in the UK.
He makes a very good case though for the USA to go fully metric – pointing out the ongoing costs, and accidents caused by using non-standard units.
But then, at the end of the video, he discourages further progress by saying, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.
Given the current threats to annex Canada, could this video be a case of “don’t interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”?
LikeLike
m,
The reason thermostats and ovens don’t use degrees Celsius is because the exact same models of products sold in the US are sold in Canada. The cost to separate out a portion of the production of these devices and set them to degrees Celsius just for Canada would be costly. It is tantamount to the dual production line issue, where a company is forced to make two versions of a product, one FFU for the US and one metric for the rest of the world. There are many instances where American companies sell their FFU sized products in Latin America and Canada in the same rounded FFU sizes as in the US, where a local label is used over a US destined label, but the amount stated is metric only, but with an odd size. Such as 946 mL, 454 g, etc.
LikeLike
“The reason thermostats and ovens don’t use degrees Celsius is because the exact same models of products sold in the US are sold in Canada.”
By that reasoning, wouldn’t Canadian cars have mph-speedometers?
LikeLike
m,
No, it wouldn’t. The government of Canada controls the units used on the roads and switched them from miles to kilometres 50 years ago. The government laws, however, do not regulate the units used on home appliances. If they did, then they would default internally to whatever units are required under law.
Thermostats and ovens sold in Canada have the ability to display and function in degrees Celsius by pressing of certain buttons in a proper order. But the means to switch them is not mentioned in the owners manuals. Even if it was, most users wouldn’t bother to go through the complicated steps.
LikeLike
“The government laws, however, do not regulate the units used on home appliances.”
I guessed that might be the case, hence my original point: “Strange that Canada doesn’t require thermostats and ovens to use degrees Celsius, like in the UK.”
Do thermostats and ovens in the USA then also have the ability to display and function in degrees Celsius?
LikeLike
m,
“Strange that Canada doesn’t require thermostats and ovens to use degrees Celsius, like in the UK.”
Canada is in a lot different position than the UK. Despite it’s independent nature and recent comments by the Trump and Canada’s reaction, Canada is in many ways the 51-st US state. When it joined NAFTA, they had to agree to adopt policies that would be an economic burden to the US. Forcing American companies to adopt metric practices when selling products in Canada was prohibited. In many cases products that were formerly rounded metric were reverted to rounded FFU. Even though product labels are pretty much metric only in Canada, they often display metric equivalents of rounded FFU and not imperial.
“Do thermostats and ovens in the USA then also have the ability to display and function in degrees Celsius?”
Yes they do, as they are the exact same units sold in Canada. Many of the electronics in these products are in products sold world-wide but in outside of North America, they are defaulted to metric. The default units might be more or less along the national electrical supply. If your equipment runs on 120/240 V; 60 HZ, it will default to FFU and if it is 230/380 V; 50 HZ, to metric.
LikeLike