Temperature Converter

Temperature shows up in three different scales depending on where you are and what you're doing: Fahrenheit (°F) on most American weather reports, Celsius (°C) across most of the world, and Kelvin (K) in physics and chemistry. Switching between them matters when you're reading a forecast abroad, working through lab data, or trying to picture how hot a heatwave abroad really was in units you're used to. The same number can mean a frigid day on one scale and a warm one on another, so getting the conversion right keeps you from misreading the situation entirely.

Each conversion follows a fixed formula. Celsius to Fahrenheit is °F = (°C × 9/5) + 32, and running it backward gives Fahrenheit to Celsius as °C = (°F - 32) × 5/9. The Kelvin scale simply shifts Celsius by a constant: K = °C + 273.15 going up, and °C = K - 273.15 coming back down. Plug your value into the matching formula and the result is exact.

Kelvin is an absolute scale, so 0 K marks absolute zero, the coldest temperature physically possible. That distinction trips people up when they talk about temperature differences. A one-degree change in Celsius equals a one-degree change in Kelvin, but a one-degree change in Fahrenheit is smaller than either. Before you trust a figure, confirm which scale the source actually used, since the same digits carry very different meanings from one scale to the next.