You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, the old Bob Dylan song goes, but if you want to know the weather itself, you might need a better weatherman than Siri.
According to multiple reports on tech sites and forums, as well as our own testing, Siri has been giving out inaccurate weather data for many major American cities, most notably New York. When you ask Siri about the weather for New York, the assistant replies with the forecast for New York, Texas, rather than New York City. Though New Yorkers are often accused of being self-centered, I think it is safe to say that when most people using the iPhone ask for weather in New York, they are not asking about the tiny unincorporated community in Texas' Henderson County (as much as all of us New Yorkers would love some 90 degree temperatures here in September!).
What is especially puzzling about the glitch is that when you tap on Siri's weather results to get more information, you are taken into Apple's weather app, which then displays the correct five day forecast for New York, NY (powered, as usual, by Yahoo Weather).
Below, take a look at a screenshot of Siri's "New York City" weather forecast, flanked by the Yahoo Weather report for New York, NY (right). Those temperatures don't match up; however, they do match for LaRue, TX (shown left). [Ed. Note: Because New York, TX is unincorporated territory, Yahoo apparently pulls data for the nearest city, LaRue.]
MacRumors readers have also reported that other major cities are susceptible to a similar inaccuracy: Asking for Richmond comes back with weather for New Richmond, Ohio; asking for St. Louis comes back with St. Louis, Georgia. We were able to reproduce both of these results and can report that not only does Siri bring up the wrong weather, she also pronounces "St. Louis" as "St. Lou-ee" (which is more cute than anything, but still).
No word on what's causing the error, or whether it is at all related to iOS 6's troublesome new maps (which also have trouble with simple locations). We'll update when we have more from Apple, or when the erroneous data has been eradicated. Until then: It's probably best not to dress yourself or decide whether or not to bring an umbrella based on the weather forecast from Siri.
Take a look at our gallery (below) featuring some of the worst Apple Maps fails. Then, read on to view new users' biggest problems with the iPhone 5 (so far).
