A custom Home Assistant integration that displays a clock-style radial precipitation forecast using PirateWeather data.
The inner ring shows minutely precipitation intensity for the next 60 minutes. The outer ring shows hourly forecasts for the next 12 hours. The center displays current conditions, temperature, high/low, and wind speed.
- Clock-style radial visualization of precipitation forecasts
- Minutely precipitation ring (next 60 minutes)
- Hourly precipitation ring (next 12 hours)
- Current conditions with feels-like temperature, high/low, and wind speed
- Smart precipitation summaries ("Light Rain starting in 12 min, for 8 min")
- Animated weather backgrounds — rain, snow, sleet, hail, thunderstorm, fog, clouds, and wind visualized with canvas-based particle animations that scale with intensity
- Stacked animation layers — sky conditions (clouds, fog) and precipitation (rain, snow) render simultaneously for realistic combinations like sun showers
- Pure CSS weather icons — animated icons for all 12 weather conditions replace static MDI icons in the card center
- Wind visualization — SVG snake-line wind animation that scales with wind speed (5–33+ mph)
- Theme-aware colors — automatically adapts to your HA light/dark theme using CSS variables
- Locate-me button — tap to recenter the forecast on your current device location (uses HA device trackers with browser geolocation fallback)
- Auto-discovers entities — zero card configuration needed
- Configurable polling intervals (minutely and hourly, independently)
- Configurable location (latitude/longitude) — changeable anytime without reinstalling
- Responsive design using CSS container queries
- Color-coded intensity scale from green (light) to red (heavy)
- Open HACS in Home Assistant
- Search for Precipitation Radial Card
- Click Download
- Restart Home Assistant
- Copy the
custom_components/precipitation_radialfolder to your Home Assistantconfig/custom_components/directory - Restart Home Assistant
- Go to Settings > Devices & Services > Add Integration
- Search for Precipitation Radial Card
- Enter your PirateWeather API key and location
- Get a free API key at pirate-weather.apiable.io
- Latitude/longitude use decimal degrees (e.g.
40.712,-74.006) - 3 decimal places is sufficient — PirateWeather resolves to a 13 km grid
- The card and all 6 sensors are created automatically
- Edit your dashboard
- Add Card > search for Precipitation Radial Card
- The card auto-discovers its entities — no configuration needed
You can also manually specify entities in YAML if preferred:
type: custom:precipitation-radial-card
entity_minutely: sensor.precipitation_radial_minutely_forecast
entity_hourly: sensor.precipitation_radial_hourly_forecast
entity_current_temperature: sensor.precipitation_radial_current_apparent_temperature
entity_high_temperature: sensor.precipitation_radial_today_high_temperature
entity_low_temperature: sensor.precipitation_radial_today_low_temperature
entity_wind_speed: sensor.precipitation_radial_current_wind_speedAll settings can be changed after installation — no need to remove and re-add the integration.
Go to Settings > Devices & Services > Precipitation Radial Card > Configure to change:
- Latitude / Longitude — change your forecast location
- Minutely update interval — how often to fetch minute-by-minute precipitation (default: 600 seconds)
- Hourly update interval — how often to fetch the hourly forecast (default: 1800 seconds)
Changes take effect immediately (the integration reloads automatically).
The integration makes 2 API calls per update cycle — one for minutely data, one for hourly data. Each Home Assistant restart also triggers a fetch for both.
PirateWeather tiers:
- Free: 10,000 calls/month
- $2/mo donor: 20,000 calls/month
| Minutely | Hourly | Calls/Month | Free (10k) | $2/mo (20k) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900s | 3600s | ~3,600 | Very safe | Very safe |
| 600s | 1800s | ~5,760 | Comfortable (default) | Very safe |
| 300s | 1200s | ~10,800 | Tight | Comfortable |
| 180s | 900s | ~17,280 | Exceeds | Comfortable |
Formula: calls/month = ((86400 / minutely_seconds) + (86400 / hourly_seconds)) x 30
The card uses a clock-style layout with two concentric rings and a center info panel.
The inner ring represents the next 60 minutes of precipitation, one segment per minute, arranged like a clock face. The top (12 o'clock position) is now, and time advances clockwise — so the right side is +15 minutes, the bottom is +30 minutes, and the left side is +45 minutes. Tick marks at every 10 minutes help you read the timeline.
This data comes from PirateWeather's minutely nowcast, which is based on radar extrapolation. Each segment is colored by precipitation intensity:
| Color | Intensity (in/hr) |
|---|---|
| Gray | None / negligible |
| Light green | < 0.05 (drizzle) |
| Green | 0.05 – 0.15 (light rain) |
| Yellow | 0.15 – 0.30 (moderate) |
| Orange | 0.30 – 0.60 (heavy) |
| Red-orange | 0.60 – 1.0 (very heavy) |
| Red | > 1.0 (extreme) |
The outer dots represent the next 12 hours of precipitation forecast, positioned like hours on a clock face. Each dot is placed at its actual clock hour — so if it's currently 2 PM, the first dot appears at the 2 o'clock position, the next at 3, and so on around the dial.
This data comes from PirateWeather's hourly forecast, using the same color scale as the inner ring.
The center displays a weather icon, a summary line, and current conditions (temperature, high/low, wind). The summary line adapts based on what the minutely data shows:
- No precipitation: Shows the current hourly condition (e.g., "Partly Cloudy")
- Rain starting soon: "Light Rain starting in 12 min, for 8 min"
- Currently raining: "Moderate Rain ending in 23 min" or "Heavy Rain ongoing"
All data comes from the PirateWeather API, which is a free alternative to the Dark Sky API.
Minutely data (inner ring) is a radar-based nowcast. It's generally reliable for detecting precipitation that's already nearby, but has some limitations:
- Radar extrapolation can miss new storm formation — it projects existing precipitation forward but can't predict rain that develops from scratch
- Accuracy decreases with time — the first 15–20 minutes are usually reliable, but the 30–60 minute range is more speculative
- Light precipitation may not register — very light drizzle or mist can fall below radar detection thresholds
- Resolution is coarse — PirateWeather uses a ~13 km grid, so localized showers may be missed or shown for nearby areas
Hourly data (outer ring) is a traditional forecast model, which is better at predicting precipitation hours out but less precise about exact timing and intensity.
Both precipIntensity (in/hr) and precipProbability (0–1) must exceed minimum thresholds for a segment to show color. A segment with high intensity but very low probability (< 10%) will remain gray, and vice versa.
The integration creates a Precipitation Radial device with 6 sensors:
| Sensor | Description | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Minutely Forecast | Minute-by-minute precipitation data (next 61 minutes) | — (data in attributes) |
| Hourly Forecast | Hourly forecast data (next 24 hours) | — (data in attributes) |
| Current Apparent Temperature | Feels-like temperature | °C (auto-converts to your HA unit system) |
| Today High Temperature | Today's high from hourly forecast | °C (auto-converts) |
| Today Low Temperature | Today's low from hourly forecast | °C (auto-converts) |
| Current Wind Speed | Current wind speed | m/s (auto-converts) |
MIT