Just think about it by 10s, as you do with the metric system:
20 C - a bit less than room temperature (68 F)
30 C - pretty hot (86 F)
40 C - very hot (104 F)
And going the other way:
10 C - a bit chilly (50 F)
0 C - cold (32 F)
-10 C - real cold (14 F)
-20 C - really really cold (-4 F)
When you hear a temperature in Celsius, don't try to convert it to Fahrenheit, just think in Celsius. 15 degrees is halfway between "chilly" 10 C and "room temp" 20 C. One degree of warming - say 26 C to 27 C - is pretty easy to conceptualize when you have those 10-degree reference points.
This is the right answer for Americans. The reason I prefer Fahrenheit is because it is the one I know what degrees feel like and because Celsius isn’t reported in enough resolution.
If it was always reported to the half point I think we would be able to relate to Celsius better. And if I was making a population wide change I’d ensure reporting was always to the half degree.
I think I meant less for forecasts and more for weather apps and thermostats. I really think it could help with adoption. But if it’s not warranted by the error then maybe I’ll reconsider.
> If you live in NYC, maybe. A lot of people don't
Those people are free to use whatever units they like. It doesn't have much bearing on the point that Fahrenheit, which is used in the United States, is a good match for the climate of most of the United States.
Most of the United States doesn't have climate that falls within 0..100 F. There are plenty of places that are more like 30..90 F etc. And I don't see how that's any different from, say, 0..30 C.
OTOH, as far as weather goes, C has the nice property that anything below zero is freezing temperature. In any locale where snow and ice is a thing, that's handy to know.
In Ecuador the temperature ranges from ~60 to ~90F, but I'm sure for them is a great relief to know people of New York have a temperature unit that perfectly matches their climate as neatly as going from 0 to 100.
I'm a scientist and an engineer, and in those applications C is often better. But in daily life, Fahrenheit makes a ton of sense.