If you’re not very familiar with iPhone weather symbols, the little icons in the app can be pretty confusing. Apple has thankfully updated its app in December 2020 to clear things up.
The icons are small and constantly changing, so understanding what they mean can be tricky. Let’s take a look at some of the most common weather symbols.
Thermometer
The Weather app on iPhones (or any Android phone) shows you a number of weather symbols and icons to tell you how much rain, wind, or snow is coming your way. The app also provides hour-by-hour temperature forecasts for any location you’re looking at.
The blue thermometers in the Weather app are shaded to show low temperatures, while red ones with a white sun behind them indicate high temperatures. Occasionally, these signs can be confusing for people who don’t know what they mean.
This is why there are a number of temperature apps out there that can help you get an accurate readout on the temperature in your area. These apps use a combination of the ambient air temp in your location and data from nearby weather stations to produce easy-to-understand digital readouts.
One of the easiest and most popular is HD Thermometer, which works on both iOS and Android. The app works by using your location to determine the local air temp and humidity levels, and then displays these numbers as a temperature chart.
It’s free and easy to use, but you may have to enable GPS on your device in order to work best. It’s a great app for keeping track of your daily temperatures and making sure you don’t overheat.
Frigid Temps
Frigid Temps and Wind are symbols that appear on your iPhone weather app icon whenever the temperature is cold or there is wind. This is a handy way to know whether or not you should take your phone outside to avoid ice and snow, and it also indicates that there are severe weather conditions nearby.
Your iPhone may act strangely if the temperature drops below freezing, and that’s because your phone’s lithium-ion battery can stop discharging electricity if it gets too cold. It’s a problem Apple has taken on head-on, saying that they’ll update the software of their latest iPhone to ensure it works properly in extreme temperatures.
Most people know that batteries don’t function well in extreme cold, but they don’t realize how much it affects their phones. A lithium-ion battery will slowly start to deplete its power through self-discharge — a chemical reaction that’s slower in cold temperatures — which can eventually cause it to die.
The cold slows atoms’ reactions, which can damage the screen and LCD components. In addition, colder air can cause condensation to form on your phone’s internal parts, causing water damage and other problems.
Wind
Thermometer and snowflake are symbols used by the Apple iPhone weather app to indicate different kinds of weather conditions. They’re fairly rudimentary, but they do get the job done.
Getting the meaning of these icons can be tricky, and if you don’t know what they mean, it’s easy to get confused by them. Fortunately, Apple updated its weather symbols in December 2020 and now they’re clear and accurate.
One of the first things you’ll notice about the new iOS 15 version of the weather app is that it’s split up into a series of Control Center-like squares, rather than a single bar. This is because there’s a lot more information than before and Apple wants you to be able to read the forecast easily.
In this way, the forecast now looks more like a radio weather report and it’s easier to see what’s going on at a glance. There’s a temperature map, a precipitation one, a UV index bar, and a wind direction graph all on the same page.
This means that you can quickly see what the weather is going to be like at a glance and decide whether you need to wear a jacket or not before heading out. There’s also a white dot that shows you where the current temperature is in the forecast range.
Snow
The weather icon on an iPhone can be a little bit confusing. You might be used to the sun and snowflake symbols, but are you familiar with the fog and rain icons?
Those are just two of the 25 icons on the Apple iPhone weather app. There are four different rain symbols, ranging from light misting to heavy showers.
A cloud with four lines underneath it – like the rain symbol on your phone – means showers, while a cloud with five lines under it means heavy rain. Similarly, a cloud with six lines under it means thunderstorms and a cloud with seven lines beneath it means hurricanes.
Some of the icons on the weather app can be a little rudimentary, but they get their point across. For instance, the cold front icon is a blue line with red hatched lines. The lines represent the edge of a cold front, which can cause many different kinds of weather.
You might also notice the thermometer and snowflake symbols in your app. They are often used to help you keep an eye on how cold it is outside.
Since the temperature is dropping from just above freezing to below freezing, you will need to watch out for any precipitation that might start freezing to surfaces. This could mean icy patches on sidewalks, bridges, or anything metal that might be exposed to the air.