What Pirate Weather is and why you might use it

Pirate Weather is a free weather data service that works with Home Assistant to show you current conditions, forecasts, and alerts on your own system. Unlike weather services that require you to hand over location data to a third party, Pirate Weather lets you pull weather information into Home Assistant while keeping your setup local — meaning the data stays on your own device rather than being sent to someone else's servers to process.

Home Assistant can display weather information in multiple ways: on a dashboard you build yourself, in automations (like turning on lights when it gets dark), or in notifications sent to your phone. Pirate Weather provides the raw data. You control what you do with it.

The trade-off is that Pirate Weather is run by volunteers and has no customer support line. If the service goes down, you have no one to call. But because it is free and open-source, you can see exactly how it works and whether you trust it with your location.

Key Takeaways

  • You need a Pirate Weather API key, which you request free from their website, and your Home Assistant instance must be able to reach the internet.
  • The integration installs through Home Assistant's built-in integration menu and requires only your API key and latitude/longitude coordinates.
  • Once installed, Pirate Weather creates weather entities you can display on dashboards, use in automations, or send to your phone as notifications.
  • Pirate Weather sends your location coordinates to their servers to fetch weather data, so you are trading location privacy for not using a commercial weather service.

Getting a Pirate Weather API key

Visit pirateweather.net and look for the sign-up or API key section. You will enter an email address and receive an API key — a long string of characters that proves to Pirate Weather that requests are coming from you. Save this key somewhere you can find it; you will need it in Home Assistant.

Pirate Weather is free and does not charge based on how many weather requests you make, though they do ask that you not hammer their servers with thousands of requests per second. Home Assistant typically checks weather once every 10 minutes by default, which is well within normal use.

Installing the Pirate Weather integration in Home Assistant

Open Home Assistant and go to Settings in the left sidebar. Select Devices & Services, then click the Create Automation button (or the plus sign, depending on your version). Search for "Pirate Weather" in the integration list.

When you find it, click it and Home Assistant will ask for three pieces of information: your API key (the one you just got from pirateweather.net), your latitude, and your longitude. If you do not know your coordinates, you can find them by searching your address on Google Maps, right-clicking the location, and copying the numbers that appear.

After you enter these details, Home Assistant will test the connection. If it works, the integration will create weather entities — data points like current temperature, humidity, and forecast — that you can now use anywhere in your system.

What happens to your location data

When you add Pirate Weather, your latitude and longitude are sent to Pirate Weather's servers every time Home Assistant checks the weather. Pirate Weather uses this to fetch the correct forecast for your area. The data is not stored permanently on their servers in the way a commercial weather service might log it for analytics, but it does pass through their system.

If you are uncomfortable sending your exact coordinates to any external service, Pirate Weather is not the right choice for you. In that case, you could use a weather integration that runs entirely on your local network, though those are less common and usually require additional hardware.

Displaying weather on your Home Assistant dashboard

Once Pirate Weather is installed, you can add weather cards to your Home Assistant dashboard. Go to your dashboard, click the edit button (pencil icon), and add a new card. Search for "weather" and select the weather card type. Choose the Pirate Weather entity from the dropdown.

The card will show the current temperature, conditions, and a forecast for the next several days. You can customize the card's appearance — make it larger, change colors, or show only certain information — by editing the card settings.

Using weather data in automations and notifications

Beyond displaying weather on a dashboard, you can use Pirate Weather data to trigger automations. For example, you could create an automation that sends you a phone notification if the forecast shows rain tomorrow, or one that turns on outdoor lights when the sun sets (Home Assistant calculates sunset based on your coordinates and the current date).

To create an automation based on weather, go to Settings > Automations and click Create Automation. Set the trigger to "Numeric state" or "Template" and reference the weather entity — for instance, checking if the temperature drops below 32 degrees. Then set an action, like sending a notification to your phone or turning on a device.

Troubleshooting common problems

If Pirate Weather does not show up in your integrations list, make sure your Home Assistant instance has internet access and is running a recent version. You can check your version in Settings > About. If you are running an old version, update Home Assistant first.

If the integration installs but shows no data, double-check that your API key is correct (copy and paste it rather than typing it) and that your latitude and longitude are in the right format — they should be decimal numbers like 40.7128 and -74.0060, not addresses. If the connection test passed but data is not appearing, wait a few minutes; the first check sometimes takes longer than usual.

If Pirate Weather goes offline or stops responding, Home Assistant will show the integration as unavailable but will not break your system. Your automations will pause until the service comes back, and your dashboard will show the last known weather data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to pay for Pirate Weather?

No. Pirate Weather is free and does not have a paid tier. The service is run by volunteers and supported by donations. There are no hidden costs or limits on how many times you check the weather.

What if Pirate Weather shuts down?

If the service closes, your Home Assistant instance will show Pirate Weather as unavailable, but your system will keep running. You would need to remove the integration and add a different weather service. Home Assistant supports several other weather integrations, including OpenWeatherMap and the National Weather Service (in the United States).

Can I use Pirate Weather without sending my location to the internet?

No. Pirate Weather is an online service, so your coordinates must reach their servers to get a forecast. If you want weather data without any external communication, you would need a local weather station connected directly to Home Assistant, which requires buying hardware.

How often does Home Assistant check the weather?

By default, Home Assistant checks every 10 minutes. You can change this in the integration settings by going to Settings > Devices & Services, finding Pirate Weather, and clicking the options menu. Lower the scan interval if you want more frequent updates, but be aware that this increases the number of requests sent to Pirate Weather's servers.

Can I use Pirate Weather for multiple locations?

Yes. You can add the Pirate Weather integration more than once, each with different coordinates. Each instance will create its own set of weather entities, which you can then display separately on your dashboard or use in different automations.