Who else besides the U.S. uses Fahrenheit these days?

Our recent mini heat wave reminded me that Fahrenheit always seems (to me, anyway) to have more emotional impact than Celsius. Maybe not everyone around the world would agree, but it got me thinking: Who else besides the U.S. uses Fahrenheit these days? —Hot Stuff

Decent, hardworking Americans are used to being sneered at by global elites (led by the godless French) for not adopting the metric system. Pointy-headed internationalists have been hectoring us to cast aside our simple, intuitive scheme of 3 feet to the yard, 5½ yards to the rod and 40 rods to the furlong for well over a century. Much of the planet has capitulated, but our English-speaking allies have always helped to keep the Imperial-unit fires burning (in informal usage, anyway).

Given this, you might assume Canada, Australia and the British Isles would also have our backs when it comes to God’s chosen thermometer, the Fahrenheit scale. If so, sucks to be you, because as of 2026 the only nations primarily using Fahrenheit are (1) the U.S. and its possessions,* (2) the Bahamas, (3) the Cayman Islands and (4) Liberia.

The Bahamas and the Caymans get Fahrenheit because, like most Caribbean jurisdictions, they get their weather reports from the U.S. National Weather Service. This makes Liberia the world’s only real non-U.S. holdout. Fahrenheit is God’s chosen thermometer the way the Mormons are God’s chosen people: It may turn out to be true, but it’s going to be a long and lonely road in the meantime.

As to Fahrenheit’s emotional impact, most people would say you’re just used to U.S.-style temperatures. Perhaps there’s more to it, though. As we know, Anders Celsius pegged his zero and 100 to the freezing and boiling points of water—important benchmarks if you’re a water molecule; for humans, maybe not so much. Meanwhile, Daniel Fahrenheit (according to one story, anyway) pegged his zero and 100 to the coldest and hottest days recorded in his hometown.

Even if this isn’t strictly true, there’s something powerfully intuitive about a scale where 0° means “about as cold as you can imagine it getting” and 100° means “about as hot as anyone can remember.” It may not be scientific, but when it comes to predicting a heat wave, there’s an urgency to “triple-digit temperatures” that Celsius’ milquetoast “in the low 40s” can’t match.

*This includes a few island nations that are technically independent, but treaty-bound to the U.S. in ways too boring for even me to explain.

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.