This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by scot mcphee. Original Post: Talking about the weather (Weather.com is inaccurate) Feed Title: SystemExxception() Feed URL: http://www.autonomous.org/pebble/systemexxception/rss.xml?category=Java Feed Description: java design and culture by scot mcphee Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by scot mcphee Latest Posts From SystemExxception()

After a tip on a mailing list I found a great little Firefox plugin, ForecastFox. It puts small icons on your status bar with pop up weather information for your locality. It's the best weather data program I've seen so far. It get its data from Weather.com. However, after looking a bit at that site I see that it's weather forecasts at least for Sydney, Australia, are not accurate.

First they are issued at 3.25pm, 5.38am local time etc. Anyone who pays attention to the Australian Bureau Of Meteorology knows they issue their forecasts at 3.30pm and 4.30am. But more worryingly, the forecasts on Weather.com are wrong. For example in the Sydney Metropolitan Forecast the Bureau says for Saturday 18 Dec 2004, issued at 4.30 am Thursday 16 Dec 2004;

Saturday :  Dry, sunny. NW/NE winds.  
            Sydney:                             19     27 
            Liverpool:                          17     31
            Penrith:                            17     32
            Richmond:                           17     32

So that's 19 degrees (Celcius) min and 27 degrees max. A warmish day for Sydney in December.

But Weather.com says

December 18 Saturday
Partly Cloudy, 24 max 17 min
Wind ESE 18 km/h

That's quite a bit of difference! 24 degrees is a very mild day for a Sydney December. Does anyone know why this is the case? Where does Weather.com get its international data from?