I am having a similar problem interpreting this sentence Normally I would read 33 C 59 F as meaning 33 degrees celcius which is equal to 59 degrees farhenheit but this this is not a correct conversion This has been answered several times The sentence says Earth s surface would average about 33 C 59 F colder It is about a difference in temperatures C notation I notice that the C and F notation that we currently use was introduced by in this edit The Celsius article says This is sometimes solved by using the symbol C pronounced degrees Celsius for a temperature and C pronounced Celsius degrees for a temperature interval although this usage is non standard I have never seen this notation before and I see that it has not stopped the steady flow of people either commenting here or altering the article because that sentence is still quite widely misunderstood I wonder if we should put a little more effort into explaining what we re actually saying rather than hoping that a non standard and to my experience obscure notation and hidden markup comment will do the trick