Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Having lived in places that use both, I would say fairly fluent, except for very cold temps on Celsius. Mainly, because I've never lived in a very cold place that used the metric system.
I also understand the temperature better in the place it is used. In other words, when I think of hot weather in Hong Kong, I think 30's, but hot weather in Las Vegas is in the 100's. I wish smart phones would let you customize the use of C/F for each city in the weather apps, but you have to choose one or the other.
I am also curious about the use of the word 'centigrade'. I've found myself saying it at times but don't know if it's still widely used anywhere.
The word "centigrade" can be used as a descriptive term, about a scale that uses 0 to 100 and it doesn't necessarily indicate the older name for the temperature system, that preceded Celsius.
I am fluent in the Fahrenheit scale for the range of temperatures associated with weather. I am not comfortable using the Fahrenheit for anything cryogenic or at very high temperatures. I have no idea what temperature liquid nitrogen boils or acetylene flames burn in the F scale, but I know these things in Celsius or Kelvin. I am mostly fluent in Celsius, I guess, but I still find myself doing math from time to time with below freezing temperatures.
=
To keep this related to weather ... when rain or snow falls ... I use inches/fractions of inches in my head because a millimeter (though I know the conversion), while perhaps more precise, is too small for this aged brain to handle for some reason and unless we get up to a minimum of centimeters or metres (or at least half of same), where it is much easier for me to visualize (because I also sew - and know I get 3 inches more for a metre than a yard), I often don't get out the snow shovel or plan to evacuate until I do the conversion. Drives me (in either kilometers or miles which I am also very fluent in) bananas when I am told we are getting 3.5 millimeters of rain (9/64th of an inch) when I am trying to figure out if I need a raincoat or not - a more common fraction that is still more useful to me would be to say we are getting approximately 1/8th of an inch.
Why would you use 64ths of an inch to measure rain? It is more difficult to see how large that fraction is. 0.14" makes much more since.
Anyway, I'm fluent in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, but for temperatures below -40°F or above 122°F I have to stop and think about it.
I am pretty fluent in both though stronger in Celsius. I started school around the time that Canada switched over to metric. So F was never taught in school, but it was still around in various ways even in my youth.
And it's still around today for a few things, most notably your house's oven in Canada is usually in F. If someone says "cook it at 350 for 30 minutes", they mean 350 F.
Also swimming pool temperatures are generally given in F here, as pool equipment comes from Florida or California and the default setting is in F.
OTOH, if you're swimming at lake or a beach in Canada generally the water temperature is given in C.
It's not uncommon in summer to mix the two in a sentence without specifying the grade: "It's 30 degrees outside and the pool is at 85. Come over over!"
Air temperature I always use C as does everyone I know. I also use C for body temperature.
Snowfall and rainfall I am way better in cm and mm, though if some says "two feet of snow", I know that's a lot.
I would change my answer to fluent in both as I know the what the F value is between -5 and 32C with a few exceptions outside of this. Only for decimals do I need a convertor. However, outside this range I am lost but these temps don't occur to often so I am usually fluent in both.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
