Apparatus having corresponding methods and storage devices comprise: an iterative decoder configured to generate codewords based on input samples, wherein the iterative decoder is further configured to perform a number of decoding iterations for each codeword, wherein the number of decoding iterations is an integer greater than zero, and wherein the number of decoding iterations does not exceed a limit number; and a sensor configured to generate one or more measurements of a physical variable, wherein the limit number is set in accordance with the one or more measurements generated by the sensor.