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Forget Dark Sky — Build Your Own DIY Weather App

For $180, I built my own personal weather station on my porch

Netatmo’s rain module. Photo and images courtesy of the author

When Apple acquired my preferred weather app, Dark Sky, and shut it down for Android users in July, I decided I finally had the excuse I was looking for to set up my own hyper-local weather station. I could get my own personalized weather forecast to replace what I lost with Dark Sky, and I could track and nerd out over how the weather at my house changed over time.

Others may have more important reasons for tracking the ultra-local weather: As wildfires ravage California and the West, for example, a home weather station can help those impacted by the smoke understand the air quality immediately outside, rather than relying on more general measures.

There are a bunch of options for home weather stations, generally starting at hundreds of dollars. I eventually settled on a device from a company called Netatmo, which costs $180 and easily connects with other “smart home” devices I already own.

Netatmo’s weather station is made up of wireless indoor and outdoor modules, which measure temperature, pressure, humidity, and air quality levels. If you’re looking for better accuracy — if you’ve read this far, you probably are — the company sells optional…