MeteoAlarm smart home integration, free and open source

Official weather warnings of 38 European countries (MeteoAlarm): level, phenomenon, times.

• Published by guim31
• Devices
• Version 1.0.1
• Requires Gladys >=5.2.0
• ★ 0

View on GitHubAll integrations

The official weather warnings of 38 European countries in Gladys: Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria… and France. The national weather services (RMI, MeteoSwiss, MeteoLux, DWD, AEMET, Met Éireann…) publish them on MeteoAlarm, run by EUMETNET; the integration reads these public feeds. No account, no key.

This integration is not affiliated with EUMETNET or MeteoAlarm. It was developed without access to the live feed, from real published samples: feedback welcome on the Gladys forum or in the GitHub issues.

What it does

• One device per zone you follow (a province, a canton, a county, a department…), and optionally one for a house of Gladys.
• On each device: the highest warning level in force (green, yellow, orange, red), the level per phenomenon (wind, rain, thunderstorms, snow and ice, heat, cold, avalanches, forest fire, coastal event, fog, flooding, rain and flooding), and the texts: current and upcoming warnings, description, start and end.
• A dashboard widget listing the warnings of a zone with their color, phenomenon, times and full text.
• Two scene triggers: "New weather warning" (often the day before it starts) and "Weather warning lifted".
• Read only: the integration never controls anything.

For France, the Météo-France integration (another author) follows the departmental vigilance in more detail. This one is meant above all for the neighboring countries and for cross-border workers, with the same tool on both sides of the border.

Requirements

• Gladys 5.2.0 or later.
• Internet access from the Gladys host: the feeds are on feeds.meteoalarm.org.
• To follow a house: a house located in Gladys (Settings → Houses), in a country whose weather service outlines its warning areas (see Limitations).

Configuration

1. Install the integration: Integrations → Install from GitHub, address https://github.com/guim31/gladys-meteoalarm.
2. In its Configuration tab, choose the country.
3. Type your zones, separated by commas (10 at most): the name of the area as shown on meteoalarm.org (e.g. Liège, Haute Savoie, Strathclyde), or its code (the MeteoAlarm EMMA_ID such as BE009, or the national code of the feed such as FR718). Accents, case and dashes do not matter, but the name must be complete: Savoie is not Haute Savoie.
4. Optionally choose a house: the integration then follows the warnings whose area contains it.
5. Choose the language of the feature names and texts (French by default) and the refresh (every 10 or 15 minutes).
6. Save, then add the devices from the Discovery tab.

The List the zones action reads the feed at once and lists the zones known for the country with their code, and whether yours were found. A feed only lists the zones that have a warning today: the list grows with each warning seen since the installation, and "not seen yet" next to one of your zones simply means it has had no warning since then. Check its spelling on meteoalarm.org in that case.

The identifier of a zone device comes from what you type (accents and case ignored): typing BE009 instead of Liège creates another device.

Refresh and terms of use

• The feed of the country is read every 10 or 15 minutes (one request for all your zones), with If-None-Match / If-Modified-Since: an unchanged feed costs a 304 answer.
• The detail of a warning (CAP document: texts, languages, area outlines) is read once per version of the warning, and only for the zones you follow. A house needs the detail of every warning of the country, read 40 at most per refresh.
• Between two readings, the start and end times are checked every minute without any request: a warning comes into force and ends on the minute.
• The integration does not count on Gladys to poll its devices: it refreshes by itself.
• MeteoAlarm publishes these feeds for public use and publishes no request quota; the integration stays far below one request a minute, identifies itself (User-Agent) and cites its source in the widget. Read the terms of use on meteoalarm.org. The warnings remain those of the national weather services: for any decision, refer to their official channels.

Devices

Each zone (or house) gives a device "MeteoAlarm <zone>". The feature names are set in the configured language when you add the device.

Feature	Type	Value
Highest warning level	risk level	0 green (no warning), 1 yellow, 2 orange, 3 red
Wind warning, Rain warning…	risk level	the same, for one phenomenon (12 features)
Current and upcoming warnings	text	"Orange: Wind (Thu 15 Oct, 06:00 → Thu 15 Oct, 21:00) · …"
Warning description	text	headline and description of the main warning
Warning start, Warning end	text	its period, in the time zone of Gladys

Gladys draws the risk levels as colored badges: "No risk" green, "Low" yellow, "Medium" orange, "High" red — the MeteoAlarm colors.

The level features only count the warnings in force. A warning announced for tomorrow appears at once in the text, in the widget and in the "New weather warning" trigger. The main warning is the highest in force, else the next one announced. The texts are in the configured language when the issuer writes it, else in English, else in the language of the country.

Dashboard widget

Add the Weather warnings widget to a dashboard and choose a zone in its settings. It shows the highest level, then the warnings in force (highest first) and those announced, each with its color, phenomenon and period. A tap on a warning opens its full text: headline, description and advice from the weather service. The texts follow the language of the dashboard when the issuer writes it. The last line cites the source, or says that MeteoAlarm does not answer and the warnings shown may be out of date.

Scene triggers

In the scene editor (Integrations category):

• New weather warning: a warning appears for a zone, or its level rises (yellow wind, then orange wind: announced twice; a lower level is no news). It often fires the day before the warning starts. Filters: the zone, the levels (yellow, orange, red), the phenomena. Variables: {{triggerEvent.data.zone}}, level (yellow, orange, red), level_label, phenomenon, phenomenon_label, in_force (true when already in force), period (in words), onset and expires (ISO dates), headline, description, instruction.
• Weather warning lifted: a zone has no warning left for a phenomenon, expired or withdrawn. Filters: the zone, the phenomena. Variables: zone, level, level_label (the last level), phenomenon, phenomenon_label.

The first reading after the installation is silent (installing during a storm does not start every scene at once), and a restart does not announce again what was already announced. To act on a level in force, use the usual "device value" trigger on the level features.

Scene examples

• Wind announced: trigger "New weather warning", levels orange and red, phenomenon wind → send the message "{{triggerEvent.data.level_label}} warning, {{triggerEvent.data.phenomenon_label}}: {{triggerEvent.data.period}}. {{triggerEvent.data.headline}}".
• Orange or red in force: trigger "device value" on "Highest warning level" of your zone, greater than or equal to 2 → turn the hall lamp orange; another scene at 0 turns it off.
• Heat: "Heat warning" greater than or equal to 1 → close the south shutters at 11:00 while it lasts.
• End of the warning: trigger "Weather warning lifted" → send "The {{triggerEvent.data.phenomenon_label}} warning is over for {{triggerEvent.data.zone}}".

Troubleshooting

• "Choose the country of your zones" / "Enter at least one zone": the configuration is incomplete.
• "MeteoAlarm has no feed for this country": the feed address answered 404. Report it: MeteoAlarm may have renamed it.
• "MeteoAlarm does not answer": network or service down. The last reading stays in place and the integration tries again at each refresh; the logs say it once, and once when it answers again.
• A zone stays green while meteoalarm.org shows a warning: run List the zones and compare the spelling, or type the code given there.
• No description, only the title: the detail of the warning could not be read; it is tried again after the next reading of the feed.
• "This country feed does not outline its areas": the house cannot be placed; follow zones instead.
• The house has no location: set it in Settings → Houses.
• Detailed logs: start the integration with LOG_LEVEL=debug. A normal cycle writes nothing at the info level.

Limitations

• Developed without access to the live feed (the development environment could not reach it): tested on real feeds published with the meteoalert-api library (France, Ireland, United Kingdom, 2022) and on a synthetic Belgian feed. The country list follows the addresses used by that library. Feedback welcome.
• A feed only lists the zones that have a warning: there is no complete list of the zones of a country, hence the typed names and codes.
• Following a house works only where the weather service outlines its areas in the warning details (Ireland does, France and the United Kingdom did not in the samples).
• One country per installation, 10 zones at most.
• The texts are those of the weather services: their language depends on the issuer.
• MeteoAlarm calls this Atom feed "legacy": if it is retired, the integration will have to follow.
• Not an official alert system: for any decision, refer to the national weather service.

Configuration settings

These are the settings MeteoAlarm asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

Setting	Type	Required	Description
MeteoAlarm warnings	section	No	Follows the official warnings that the weather services of 38 countries publish on MeteoAlarm (EUMETNET): one device per zone, refreshed every 10 or 15 minutes. No account needed. Choose the country, then type your zones as they appear on meteoalarm.org, or their code; the "List the zones" action shows the zones the feed knows. For France, the Météo-France integration is more detailed. Not affiliated with EUMETNET or MeteoAlarm.
Country	select	Yes
Zones	string	No	Area names or codes, separated by commas (10 at most): one device each. Accents and case do not matter.
House (optional)	select	No	Also follows the warnings whose area contains this house. Works only where the issuer outlines its areas: see the documentation.
Language	select	No	Feature names and texts sent to Gladys. Warning texts follow it when the issuer writes that language, else English.
Refresh	select	No	How often the MeteoAlarm feed is read. Start and end times are followed to the minute either way.

How to install MeteoAlarm in Gladys

1. In Gladys, open Integrations: MeteoAlarm appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-meteoalarm:1.0.1), 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/guim31/gladys-meteoalarm.

MeteoAlarm requires Gladys >=5.2.0. 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

MeteoAlarm 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 guim31, not by the Gladys core team.

• Browse all integrations, native and community
• Build and publish your own external integration
• Source code on GitHub — source of this documentation

Subscribe to the Gladys Assistant newsletter

A few emails per month about new releases and project news. Sent by Pierre-Gilles Leymarie, founder of the project. Unsubscribe anytime 🙂