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Apple Weather App snowfall totals don’t make sense

Can someone explain why there is such a marked discrepancy between the predicted snowfall totals for a given day in the Apple Weather app? For any given day, there are two precipitation amounts, one above the hourly summary that says

X” Total for the day

and then a different value under the Daily Summary.


I have the latest iOS version.

And this has nothing to do with my current location. I live in Seattle and am looking for snowfall predictions at several nearby ski areas.

Other examples:

iPhone 6, iOS 12

Posted on Jan 4, 2024 8:03 AM

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Posted on Jan 10, 2024 5:25 AM

the weirdest part is if you tap and hold to see the individual hourly totals and add them all up that total doesn’t match up with either of the other 2, so there’s 3 total amounts, super confusing, if it’s a bug they need to fix it, if there is a reason for the difference they need to label it better. we’re not all meteorologists.

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Jan 10, 2024 5:25 AM in response to mtrione

the weirdest part is if you tap and hold to see the individual hourly totals and add them all up that total doesn’t match up with either of the other 2, so there’s 3 total amounts, super confusing, if it’s a bug they need to fix it, if there is a reason for the difference they need to label it better. we’re not all meteorologists.

Jan 7, 2024 8:03 AM in response to kbj-22

Same deal with Canadian forecast. I figured it was maybe misrepresenting the source data. Today is bad though, closer to 20:1


The best explanation I can think of is that its 7mm of precipitation vs 120mm of snowfall. That would make sense given that there could be a mix of rain and snow in the same day so the value at the top would be an aggregate of both measures and the description at the bottom could break both down in rainfall vs snowfall. With that in mind, my take away is that the precipitation value is much less interesting than the snowfall when planning my day but more difficult to get to.


Jan 13, 2024 8:32 AM in response to jnikkir

interesting. never seen that comment about "equivalent" appear before. I have the same situation as others with the discrepancy between Total for the Daily and Daily Summary. Thanks for posting the screen shot.


It lead me to find this article about Snow Ratios from the NWS which collaborates your screen shot

https://www.weather.gov/arx/why_snowratios

Feb 13, 2024 8:41 AM in response to kbj-22

I agree. I see what kbj-22 sees. I understand what others have said about “liquid equivalency” but that doesn’t make sense to me. Even if displaying that number without explanation onscreen is a bug, it seems to complicate matters.

The top “Total” number seems to always be 1/10th that of the lower “Summary” number. It really looks like it’s a decimal point discrepancy.

I doubt it’s about liquid equivalency because I recall that was other than a 1:10 ratio.

Dear Apple Discussions Monitors (presuming someone like that exists):

Would you please weigh in?

Mar 2, 2024 10:55 AM in response to mtrione

Today's weather summary takes the cake. At Northstar, in Lake Tahoe, where there is a blizzard going on. The Precipitation says 2.65" in the last 24 hours with 1.2" in the next 24hrs. In actuality thre has been 33" of snowfall in the last 24 hrs with another 30" coming. Who cares about "liquid equivalent"?? That is NOT why we view the weather. We want to see rain, snow and accurate summaries. If apple feels a need to add a "liquid equivalent", then make that a footnote, not the headline.

Apple Weather App snowfall totals don’t make sense

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