Forecast channel under casual fire

IGN's Matt Casamassina, the world's crankiest Nintendo fan, is complaining again. We'll bet the sky is blue. This time, however, Matt may be correct; his latest rant regards the Forecast Channel's outdated reporting and with that, we have to agree. This morning, we compared the Forecast channel to the local news reports and to the Weather Underground, and the Wii was off by 14 degrees. Considering the current temp was from midnight, however, that's not too suprising.

Matt C.'s final statement is that if they can't get it right, they shouldn't bother, and to hell with the fact that the Forecast Channel is interesting, pretty ... and new. He doesn't want to be tempted by something that isn't up-to-the-minute correct. We can see that point, but pose one in return: how often do you check the weather to get the current temperature and conditions? We usually just, y'know, walk outside for that. When it came to the daily high and low temperature, as well as condition and the extended predictions, the Forecast Channel was spot on with the other guys. It was only the current temperature that was incorrect. While that's certainly mind-boggingly annoying, it's probably also fixable.

Canadian commenters at IGN noted that they weren't having the reporting problems that Matt (and we) seemed to have, and we'd be curious to hear about how up to date the Forecast Channel is elsewhere. For instance, is it on the money in Japan? As the provider is headquartered there, we'd guess so.

So what do you guys think? Is it a big deal to you whether (heh) or not the current displayed temp is accurate? Is it accurate for you? Do you think the system will change over time? We say yes to that last.