A good weather plugin

[avpman]

I would appreciate hearing from users about your recommendations for a decent, dependable weather plugin. Please, no replies from authors, just end-users. I don't have any specific needs except to get data from as close to my geocoordinates as possible. Thanks in advance!
(P.S. I do not have a weather station of my own - yet).

[johnpeterson]

A few questions that might help with your decision are:

What service do you want to get the weather from? National Weather Service, Weather Underground, DarkSky, etc

How detailed of a forecast do you want to get? 7-10 day am/pm, hourly, current conditions only,...

What are you going to do with the data? HSTouch screens, event programing,...

I use WeatherXML on HS4 to populate HSTouch screens with current conditions and 7 day am/pm forecast getting the data from NWS. I also use it to turn on/off heat tape on my roof in the winter. The plugin is no longer supported but it still works great and is popular with many users. There has also been a lot of work on AKWeather and rnbWeather recently but I have stayed with WeatherXML since it works for all of my requirements.

[langenet]

Thanks for that. Good to know WeatherXML works on hs4. I'm currently using it in hs3 along with HSTouch.

[tenholde]

I'm using rnbWeather, which is based upon WeatherXml I think, and have been happy with it.

[avpman]

A few questions that might help with your decision are:
What service do you want to get the weather from? National Weather Service, Weather Underground, DarkSky, etc
How detailed of a forecast do you want to get? 7-10 day am/pm, hourly, current conditions only,...
What are you going to do with the data? HSTouch screens, event programing,...

Hope this helps:

• Weather service - whichever one gets data as close to my specific geolocation as possible.
• Forecast - seven days daily should be fine.
• Purpose - Event programming, eventually HS touch display of forecast

I saw the WeatherXML plugin. But I'm hesitant to build around it in the event that at some point it stops working. I'm thinking since I have to build out everything from scratch I might as well do so with a supported plugin.

Thanks in advance for additional feedback.

[Pete]

I am still using WeatherXML and it works fine with NOAA, standard HS3-HS4 pages and Homeseer touch.

Jeff was always tweaking it but it never failed for me with HS2, HS3 and now HS4. I do not believe it will be breaking with HS4.

I also built a lite weather page for the OmniTouch 5.7e and OmniProTouch screens which works fine.

NOAA has changed a bit and more secure and WeatherXML works fine with NOAA. I quit using Weather Underground many many years ago when they were sold the first time then the second time.

I pull down maps here from NOAA satellite links in real time and now HD. A while back built an RPI with an SD radio to download NOAA SD weather maps. Works fine still but the images are SD. New NOAA satellites now take HD pictures.



Best local weather at your home is using a weather station. Here use a Davis and generate a text file which is read by WeatherXML.

Nowadays weather stations are have built in cloud connectivity and their unique firmware which is difficult to tap into.

[johnpeterson]

Start watching the current conditions and forecast on weather.gov (NWS,NOAA) and see if that meets your requirements. It will be the easiest and most stable service to connect to. As Pete noted the next best thing would be a local weather station.

[outbackrob]

I have used WeatherXML for probably 15 years? Always works. I have moved away from it as my primary weather info source because I bought a TEMPEST Weather System and use the WeatherFlow Plug-in. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that WeatherXML has (yet?) but it doesn't get any more local than that! :-)

[avpman]

I am still using WeatherXML and it works fine with NOAA, standard HS3-HS4 pages and Homeseer touch.

Jeff was always tweaking it but it never failed for me with HS2, HS3 and now HS4. I do not believe it will be breaking with HS4.

I also built a lite weather page for the OmniTouch 5.7e and OmniProTouch screens which works fine.

NOAA has changed a bit and more secure and WeatherXML works fine with NOAA. I quit using Weather Underground many many years ago when they were sold the first time then the second time.

I pull down maps here from NOAA satellite links in real time and now HD. A while back built an RPI with an SD radio to download NOAA SD weather maps. Works fine still but the images are SD. New NOAA satellites now take HD pictures. Best local weather at your home is using a weather station. Here use a Davis and generate a text file which is read by WeatherXML. Nowadays weather stations are have built in cloud connectivity and their unique firmware which is difficult to tap into.

Long-range may be another weather station at home. My last one pretty much disintegrated in the blazing Florida sun over several years. One of the original Davis Vantage Pro systems. No local weather station right now. I may have over-emphasized "geolocation" a bit. I realize I'll only get weather info for my neighborhood with a local station. If I get fairly close info for my city, then I'll be happy. So I guess I should add to the want list:

• Ability to integrate with a local weather station in the future.

[Pete]

Many many years ago switched from using WeatherUndergroud (also weather cam) personal weather stations to NOAA personal weather stations.

The only thing was that it was not really maintained and there were many listed weather stations that had been down for years.

I kept writing to NOAA about this and they started to pay attention.

You could look in the NOAA database for a local personal weather station and use that data.

In FL had a weather station configured and connected to an old laptop. Worked fine for many years. I also tapped in to a couple of Marine animal research labs which had their weather stations on the internet and I was able to pull read only data from their web sites.

I was down the street from this place....Mote Marine Laboratory. I called them once when a Manatee decided to live under our boat dock. It was an adventure for them to remove the Manatee and by the time this happened the boat dock had been pretty much destroyed and we had to rebuilt it all.

Here is their direct weather station links.... digging a bit I saw that it was just a very old Davis weather station and the live stats are posted there...

Current Weather at New Pass, Sarasota Florida.

Notice that the weather station is on different links than the main marine laboratory. I had my weather station which was mostly plastic on the roof there with water about 40 feet from it. It worked fine for over 10 years. I documented the installation right here on the forum. It was mounted way too high up and difficult to get to. We had a storm once that damaged most of the pool cage and the weather station survived this fine.

[avpman]

Many many years ago switched from using WeatherUndergroud (also weather cam) personal weather stations to NOAA personal weather stations.

The only thing was that it was not really maintained and there were many listed weather stations that had been down for years.

I kept writing to NOAA about this and they started to pay attention.

You could look in the NOAA database for a local personal weather station and use that data.

great idea, thanks!

[rmasonjr]

I've been using WeatherXML for a number of years now to update my HSTouch wall-mounted tablet. The family loves it.

One key thing that I cant get to work is severe weather alerts. I'd like to get near-realtime severe weather alerts so I can turn a bulb red or something.
I do have Alexa NWS alerts which is actually pretty cool. All of the Echoes chime and light up.

[Pete]

If you do get a weather station don't mount it so high that it is difficult to get to. Originally here mounted mine on a mast that was attached to the chimney two stories up. I had to use my 24 ft ladder to get up there. Same in FL. The old house was built in 1955 and the new house was built according to FEMA standards which made it go from sea level to 10 feet above sea level including the pool. The neighbor did the same and put his pool at sea level and that attracted all of the local birds to his pool that wasn't in a cage. It looked really nice but when you sat by the pool there were always birds around. He got the neighbors upset as he started to shoot and kill them. He was old and a bit excentric. The rain tipping bucket got clogged within months of installation. I am older now and not in to climbing on my roof or above 10 feet these days. Best to mount it on a post in your back yard that is easy to lower or get to.

[SirCJW]

Since you all are deeply knowledgeable about the weather apps I wonder if I can ask a question. have three Aprilaire 8830 panels panels installed to control a myriad of systems in my home. Each one has an outdoor temp sensor hardwired BUT the panels do have the option of pulling the temp, RH etc from the automation system (HS4). Any suggestions on which app is best to just give this simple info. I am not looking to put up a weather station nor need one and as my wife has her multiple bird feeders it would just turn the station into another landing spot and roost for the birds anyways.

[Pete]

Here is a wireless / wired combo sensor that speaks MQTT and you could utilize the mcsMQTT plugin to get the variable reads.

This is one combo sensor.



02:10:53.480 MQT: tele/tasmota_055721/SENSOR = {"Time":"2021-06-09T02:10:53","SI7021":{"Temperature":75.2,"Humidity":52.1,"D ewPoint":56.4},"TempUnit":"F"}

Homeseer 4 / mcsMQTT reads the above posted line item.