⛈️ Optional feature

Met Office weather setup

Add a live weather widget to your dashboard — free, no subscription, takes about five minutes.

What you get
Live local observations

The weather widget shows real observations from the nearest Met Office land station — temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, and a weather icon — updated every 30 minutes alongside your energy data.

Free tier is plenty. The Met Office gives you 360 API calls per day at no cost. At the default 30-minute poll interval the dashboard uses around 48 calls per day — well under the limit. No credit card required.
Setup
Step by step
1

Create a Met Office DataHub account

Go to datahub.metoffice.gov.uk and click Login / Register in the top-right corner. Enter your email address and follow the confirmation link they send you. No payment details are required at registration.

2

Find the Land Observations product

Once logged in, browse the product catalogue. You need the Observations → Land Observations product — this is the one that provides real-time readings from ground-based weather stations across the UK.

Important: Make sure you select Land Observations, not “Site Specific” or “Atmospheric” — those are different products with different APIs and will not work with this dashboard.
3

Subscribe to the free plan

On the Land Observations product page, select Subscribe and choose the Free plan (360 calls per day). Complete the subscription — the Met Office will send a confirmation email and create an API application for you automatically.

4

Copy your API key

Go to My Subscriptions in your account (top-right menu). Find your Land Observations subscription and click through to the Application details. Your API key is shown there.

Copy it now. The key is only shown in full when first created. If you lose it, you can generate a new one from the same page — but you will need to update the dashboard settings with the new key.
5

Enter and save the key in your dashboard

Open your dashboard, click the settings cog (top-right) and enter your admin password. Scroll down to the Weather (Met Office) section, paste your API key into the API Key field, then click Save settings.

Save before the next step. The postcode lookup uses your saved API key to contact the Met Office directly — it will not work until the key has been saved.
6

Find your nearest weather station

Back in the Weather settings section, type your UK postcode into the Postcode field and click Lookup. The dashboard contacts the Met Office directly to find the nearest real observation station, then fills in the station identifier automatically. You will see a confirmation like ✓ Geohash: gcj9q6 appear below the field.

Click Save settings. The weather widget will appear on your home screen within about 15–20 seconds.

Weather settings section showing postcode EX15 3EB with a successful geohash lookup result
The weather settings section after a successful postcode lookup — the nearest station geohash is filled in automatically
Non-UK users: The postcode lookup covers Great Britain and Northern Ireland only. Channel Islands (GY, JE) and Isle of Man (IM) are not supported. If the lookup does not apply to you, enter a station geohash directly in the Geohash (manual) field below the postcode.
Troubleshooting
Weather widget not showing?
🔒

API key not accepted

Double-check you subscribed to Land Observations specifically, not a different product. Also confirm the subscription is active under My Subscriptions before copying the key.

⏰

Lookup button gives an error

The API key must be saved before clicking Lookup — the lookup uses your key to contact the Met Office. If you see “API key not configured”, paste your key and click Save settings first, then retry Lookup.

🌏

Postcode not found

Check the postcode is correct. Channel Islands (GY, JE) and Isle of Man (IM) are not supported by the lookup — use the manual geohash field instead. Scottish Highlands and remote postcodes are fully supported.

🔋

Wrong or no data

Met Office land stations are spaced around 50 km apart. If the nearest station is offline the widget will show the most recent available observation, which may be a few hours old.

Ready to install?

Pick your platform and get the dashboard running first.

💻  Windows 🍎  macOS 🐧  Linux / Raspberry Pi