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Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) smart home integration, free and open source

Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) integration for Gladys Assistant

Australian weather from the Bureau of Meteorology: forecasts, observations and warnings.

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Australian weather in Gladys, straight from the Bureau of Meteorology: current conditions from the nearest observation station, hourly and 7-day forecasts, warnings in force and the fire danger rating. No account and no API key are needed. The BoM only covers Australia.

This integration is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Bureau of Meteorology. It reads the public API used by the BoM website and app; for official warnings, always check bom.gov.au and your state emergency services.

What you get​

  • Gladys weather: the integration becomes the weather provider of Gladys. The dashboard weather widget and the assistant ("what's the weather tomorrow?") use BoM data, in °C or °F depending on your profile.
  • Weather alerts: BoM warnings in force at your location (severe thunderstorm, flood, heatwave, cyclone, marine wind…) and, optionally, a fire danger rating of High, Extreme or Catastrophic, as Gladys weather alerts.
  • Three dashboard widgets, three scene triggers and three scene actions, described below.

Configuration​

  1. Install the integration. The install screen asks for access to the position of your houses: the integration uses it to know which place to monitor when no location is configured.
  2. Open the Configuration tab:
    • Location: a suburb, a town, a postcode (2150) or latitude,longitude. Leave it empty to use the position of your Gladys house (Settings → Houses). Not sure about the spelling? Use the Find a location button.
    • Warning check interval: how often (5 to 60 minutes, 10 by default) the warnings and the fire danger rating are checked to fire your scenes.
    • Fire danger as weather alerts: report the High, Extreme and Catastrophic ratings as Gladys weather alerts.
  3. Save, then click Test the connection: it shows the place found and the latest temperature observed nearby.

Dashboard widgets​

Add them from the dashboard editor. Each widget has an optional Location setting to show another place than the configured one.

  • BoM conditions: observed temperature, feels-like, humidity and wind, the temperature curve of the next 24 hours, today's summary, rain since 9am, fire danger rating and maximum UV index.
  • BoM 7-day forecast: one row per day with the minimum and maximum, the summary and the chance of rain; tap a day for the detailed forecast.
  • BoM warnings: the warnings in force, major first, each with a link to the BoM warning page, a Refresh button (checks again right away) and a link to all the warnings of your state.

Scenes​

In the scene editor, the cards are in the Integrations category.

Triggers​

  • BoM warning issued: a new warning covers the location. Optional filters: warning type (flood, severe thunderstorm, heatwave, tropical cyclone…) and severity (major, minor). Empty filters match any warning.
  • BoM warning ended: a warning was cancelled or expired. Same filters.
  • Fire danger rating changed: today's fire danger rating changed; optionally filter on the new rating (e.g. only Extreme and Catastrophic).

The following actions can read the details: {{triggerEvent.data.title}}, {{triggerEvent.data.area}}, {{triggerEvent.data.severity}}, {{triggerEvent.data.expiry_time}}, {{triggerEvent.data.rating}}…

The first check after installation records the current situation without firing anything: the triggers announce what changes.

Actions​

Each action has an optional Location field (scene variables accepted); empty, it uses the configured location. Values are metric (°C, km/h, mm).

  • Get BoM current conditions: temperature, feels-like, humidity, wind, gusts, rain since 9am, minimum and maximum so far, station.
  • Get BoM forecast: for today or one of the next 6 days: minimum, maximum, summary, detailed text, chance and amount of rain, UV, fire danger, sunrise and sunset.
  • Get BoM warnings: number of warnings in force (total, major, minor), whether a major one is in force, and their names.

Example: every morning at 7, get tomorrow's forecast; if the chance of rain is above 60, send "Rain expected: {{…summary}}" and skip the garden watering.

Good to know​

  • Forecast texts and warning titles come from the BoM in English.
  • Data is cached a few minutes (warnings 2 minutes, observations 5, forecasts 15) to stay light on the BoM servers.
  • Outside Australia, the integration refuses the request and Gladys falls back to its other weather provider.

Troubleshooting​

  • "No location": fill the Location field, or set the position of your house in Gladys.
  • "No Australian location matches": try the postcode, or use Find a location.
  • "Outside the area covered": the position of your house is not in Australia; set a Location.
  • Logs: Integrations → Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) → Supervision.

Configuration settings​

These are the settings Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
Getting startedsectionNoWeather, forecasts and warnings come from the public API of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology: no account, no API key, Australia only. Leave the location empty to use the position of your Gladys house.
LocationstringNoSuburb, town, postcode or "latitude,longitude". Leave empty to use the position of your Gladys house.
Warning check interval (min)numberNoHow often warnings and the fire danger rating are checked to fire the scene triggers.
Fire danger as weather alertsbooleanNoReport a fire danger rating of High, Extreme or Catastrophic as a Gladys weather alert.

How to install Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) in Gladys​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/gboulvin/gladys-bom:1.0.0), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/gboulvin/Gladys-BoM.

Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations​

Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by gboulvin, not by the Gladys core team.

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