What Do the Bars Mean in the Weather App on iPhone?
Reading Time: 4 minutes From users comments, I understand that some users are confused about the temperature bars in Apple’s Weather app on iPhone. These temperature bars are colored, look like a kind of slider, and appear under the 10-day forecast section.
When you open the app, swipe up on the screen to see the 10-day forecast section. This section displays the forecast for the day ahead as well as for the next nine days, for a total of 10 days. In this article, I will explain how you can make sense of these bars in the new Weather app.
The Meaning of the Weather App Bars
There are 10 bars. Although their colors and sizes all differ, as I show in the image below, the first forecast’s (today) bar is little different from the others. It looks like a slider bar as this one includes a white dot, while the others do not have a dot.
Let’s start with this one. This dot indicates the current temperature. It is a visual indication that shows where the current temperature is within the range. To explain this more, as you can see, the today forecast shows that today will have a 70% chance of precipitation (rain) with a high of 54 °F and a low of 34°F. You can also see that where the current temperature fits in the 10 day forecast.
So, what do these bars mean? These bars show the temperature range for the day, and they also show where the current temperature fits in the range. These bars provide a visual aid for you to understand the temperature range so that you get a sense of how great the difference (there may be a greater or lesser difference) is between the low and the high temperature for each day.
As you can see in the image of the 10 day forecast above, the coldest temperature among the 10 days has the bar positioned to the left – the hottest day to the right. The bars show a particular day’s temperature range compared to the other days.
- All of the 10 days have the same length bar.
- Each bar has a colored section. The colored parts are different sizes. This colored section shows the relative size of the temperature range for that day in the 10-day forecast period. Each colored bar shows the temperature portion of the day within the 10-day range .
- You may notice that each of the colored bars are positioned differently. The positioning shows the temperature range, compared to other days.
- Also, the colors indicate different temperatures. The blue color indicates colder temperature and the green/yellow color indicates warmer temperature.
For example, see the screenshot below:
As you can see, in the 10 day forecast, the highest temperature is 60°F (Thursday) and the lowest is 22 (the following Thursday). And so, you can see that if the temperature range is bigger (in this example, the first Thursday and Friday in the forecast), there is a bigger colored bar. If it is cold, it is blue. If it is hotter, it is green/yellow. The position of the colored bar differs based on how a particular range compares to the other days. In this example, the hottest day is the first Thursday where you can see that the bar is touching the right end. The lowest temperature is on the following Thursday where you can see that the bar is touching the left end.
See also:
I’m still confused about the temp on the left? In above screen shot, is the 34 degrees the overnight temp Tuesday into Wednesday OR Wednesday into Thursday???
Thanks!
I agree. A nice improvement would be 30-50-25 showing last nights low was 30 today’s forecasted high is 50 and tonight’s low is forecasted as 25. Thanks for the explanation of the bar meaning!
What’s confusing is there’s no indication if the low is for the early morning of the current day that we’ve passed (last night) or the forecasted low for the early morning of the coming day (tonight’s low). In other words, is Monday nights low actually the first number on Tuesday? Normally forecasts show todays high and tonight’s low, but here the numbers are backwards and just represent a range without regard to time of day it seems.