Impending shutdown of wow.metoffice.gov.uk service

[John Smith]

Since no one else has mentioned it I thought I would. From weeWX's GitHub issue list mrtnrey posted the following:
https://github.com/weewx/weewx/issues/1013

UK Met Office has recently announced that they intend to stop managing the central data hub of WOW in the course of 2026. The Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium has decided to re-launch the platform under the name "WOW-BE reboot" with a new back-end. See https://wow.meteo.be/en/ for more background.

The upload protocol, however, stays the same as WOW-UK. Only the endpoint changes from http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/automaticreading? to http://wow.meteo.be/api/v2/send?. Station owners have to make a new account on https://wow.meteo.be/web/login and re-register their station (they receive a new UUID).

Documentation on the send protocol is here https://wow.meteo.be/docs/api/

It would be nice to have this new platform integrated into WeeWX as an extra service in StdRESTful. BTW: we intend to open up all received data as open data. The back-end itself is open source: https://github.com/rmibelgium/wowbe under GPL.

I posted steps on how to change from sending to wow.metoffice.gov.uk  to wow.meteo.be in this post to the issue:

https://github.com/weewx/weewx/issues/1013#issuecomment-3285432774

[Glenn McKechnie]

Thanks for the heads up.

Account creation was easy enough, Although their timezone selection didn't seem to work until the account was actually created? No matter, it just meant a revisit and an edit to their profile section after the site was generated.

I used your suggested edits but I duplicated the restx WOW section therefore I have both uploads happening. Belts and braces :-)

Cheers

 Glenn

Various WeeWx addons at
https://github.com/glennmckechnie

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[John Smith]

On Sun, 14 Sept 2025 at 09:48, Glenn McKechnie <glenn.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for the heads up.

Account creation was easy enough, Although their timezone selection didn't seem to work until the account was actually created? No matter, it just meant a revisit and an edit to their profile section after the site was generated.

I used your suggested edits but I duplicated the restx WOW section therefore I have both uploads happening. Belts and braces :-)

I thought about doing that but if they're planning to turn it off soon, is there much point as the data is going to be deleted, not able to be transferred. anyway.

[John Kline]

It is my understanding that the DataPoint API is going away (i.e., accessing data).

I am not aware that the ability to upload observations is going away.  Where are you reading this?

On Sep 13, 2025, at 6:25 PM, John Smith <deltafo...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[John Smith]

I haven't seen anything from wow.metoffice.gov.uk, but on https://wow.meteo.be/en/ it has the following pop-up:

The UK Met Office will soon stop managing WOW’s central data. With WOW-BE reboot, the RMI is preparing the platform for an independent future. This new system now runs in parallel with the old system. On December 1, 2025, the old platform will be disconnected.
WOW-BE reboot is faster, simpler, and built for the future. You can now easily register your weather station in Dutch, French, or English, and measure new variables like solar radiation. Everything is open and ready for the community!
👉 Register your weather station today to stay connected in the future.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/000896BF-8D24-46E8-A2EE-8468B2FBD25A%40johnkline.com.

[Jimi Lawson]

Had to delete my previous reply, forgot to remove my ID numbers here's the edited version

I was recently in touch with the Met Office about the up coming changes, The questions I asked were

The questions I asked were
"Hi
Looking for some clarification on a couple of points
      I currently upload my weather station data to my site on the Met Office WOW.  Will the DataPoint retirement affect this ? If do how do I continue to submit Data ?
     I also currently download a 7 day forecast from the MET office.  Will this continue or will I have to access it a different way ?
     I used to be able to upload weather cam images to WOW by FTP but this no longer seems to work. Is it discontinued? if so will there be an alternative method available ?
Any information/help would be greatly appreciated.
Best Regards
Jimi Lawson "

The answers received today (14/09/25) are:

"On 14/09/2025 14:53, Enquiries wrote:

 Hi Jimi,
 Thank you for your email. To answer your questions:

     No, the removal of DataPoint will not affect uploading data to WOW.
     A service called Weather DataHub will be taking over from DataPoint, through there you can download forecasts. Please see further information here: https://datahub.metoffice.gov.uk/
     The WOW FTP server has been retired. If anyone wishes to upload webcam images they'll have to use their own FTP server. Steps for this can be found here: https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/support/webcams

I hope the above helps.
Kind regards,
Jennifer
Weather Desk
Met Office  FitzRoy Road  Exeter  Devon  EX1 3PB  United Kingdom https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/contact
Privacy Notice: To find out about how the Met Office uses any personal information we collect about you, please see our Privacy Policy at https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/legal/privacy "

[John Smith]

I've submitted a pull request for restx.py to enable sending weather data to both wow.metoffice.gov.uk and wow.meteo.be, the code is slightly modified from the diff that glennmckechnie posted to issue #1013

You can download a copy of restx.py with the changes here:
https://github.com/evilbunny2008/weewx/raw/refs/heads/master/src/weewx/restx.py

Just replace the existing restx.py which resides in /usr/share/weewx/weewx/restx.py when you install using the Debian package, I don't know exactly where it would be for other install methods.

The above file is from the current weeWX master branch and only tested in weeWX 5.1.0 on Debian Bookworm running a 6.12 kernel from backports.

I have limited python experience and would value suggestions to make the code more pythonic if needed.

[David]

Just a query with regards to the updated restx.py file for sending data to WOW-BE.

When reporting pressure using "barometer", shouldn't the respective WOW-BE field be "baromin" instead of "absbaromin"?

According the the WOW-BE site:

"baromin = relative pressure (i.e. pressure reduced to sea level) and absbaromin = absolute pressure (i.e. the raw pressure measurement at the station’s location)."

So for reporting pressure:

   - weewx parameter "barometer" corresponds to the field "baromin" in WOW-BE

   - weewx parameter "pressure" corresponds to the field "absbaromin" in WOE-BE

May be I'm wrong, but since I modified the code to report "barometer" as "baromin" the reported pressure now seems to be correct (before the change they were abnormally high).

I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2 so it makes sense for me to report "barometer" pressure since this is what is provided by the weather station.

[Tom Keffer]

I've made the change in commit fc0c338.

Thanks, David.

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[John Smith]

Not using absbaromin things go wonky, my station was reporting over 1100kPa at one stage...

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[John Smith]

hPa even...

[David]

For me using absbaromin, the readings reported by WOW-BE for my weather station looked very wrong.

The barometric pressures were at least +10hPa higher than they should have been, presumably because WOW-BE was (incorrectly) adjusting the received MSLP (weewx barometer value) for the altitude of my weather station (approximately 105m).

As soon as I changed it to baromin, the pressure readings looked much better.

Since then things have appeared normal on WOW-BE for my weather station with no anomalous pressure readings.

[David]

For me using absbaromin, pressure readings for my station being reported by WOW-BE were consistently looking very wrong.

They were approximately +10hPa higher than they should have been. Presumable the MSLP (barometer) being reported were then being (incorrectly) adjusted by WOW-BE to take into consideration the altitude of my weather station (around 105m).

As soon as I changed to baromin instead, things looked much better. So far the WOW-BE barometric pressures for my station have been stable with no anomalous readings.

--

David

[Tom Keffer]

I'm having a hard time following. I know the last commit fixed David's station. John: I gather it made yours worse? 

Could someone check the WOW-BE API and see exactly what they need. That should be what we do, rather than make stations "better" or "worse".

-tk

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/4aa290e2-2a50-4e2b-8e58-e81be5ac7897n%40googlegroups.com.

[John Kline]

baromin should always be relative pressure (i.e., adjusted to sea level).  absbaromin is absolute (raw) pressure.

baromin is the authoritative.  absbaromin is not used unless it is the only pressure provided.  In that case, absbaromin is used to derive baromin.

See https://wow.meteo.be/en/connect-your-station/diy-with-the-wow-be-api/

We have provided comprehensive documentation at https://wow.meteo.be/docs/api/

Please note two important changes with respect to the (legacy) WOW protocol:

• Parameter solarradiation has been added.
• Concerning relative and absolute pressure: there was somehow an ambiguity in the (original) WOW protocol as it both accepted relative and absolute pressure in the same parameter baromin (and the nature of the pressure had to be defined in the station registration). This ambiguity has been resolved in the WOW-BE protocol. It explicitly distinguishes between the two values: baromin always represents relative pressure (i.e. pressure adjusted to sea level), while absbaromin represents absolute pressure (i.e. the raw measurement at the station’s location). The authoritative value is always baromin. If onlyabsbaromin is provided, baromin is derived from it; otherwise, only baromin is used.

On Sep 23, 2025, at 5:52 PM, Tom Keffer <tke...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/CAPq0zEDVYHnru_vhi11hhM%2BagsOCQE8BPMFrmDUg-aX9pMUYYw%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Smith]

There was 3 of us getting wrong results before switching to absbaromin, the WOW-BE site was showing over 1100hPa, no idea why @John Kilne had a different outcome.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/CAPq0zEDVYHnru_vhi11hhM%2BagsOCQE8BPMFrmDUg-aX9pMUYYw%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Kline]

> no idea why @John Kilne had a different outcome

I’m not uploading to WOW-BE, but I can read documentation.  I was responding to the following request from Tom:

Could someone check the WOW-BE API and see exactly what they need. That should be what we do, rather than make stations "better" or "worse".

On Sep 23, 2025, at 6:48 PM, John Smith <deltafo...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/CAGTinV5LjmrPJGOQON%2BMf1Em6vdnZAJJhTCcRTuHfYuOBgWmtw%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Smith]

The the change @Tom made should be rolled back.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/744C3E5F-17F7-45CC-AA0A-E7AD5B72A8B2%40johnkline.com.

[steepleian]

@John Kline,

I have also read the documentation and have come to exactly the same conclusion as you so that is what should be used. I am a current WOW user and intend to continue with the new service.

https://claydonsweather.org.uk

On 24 Sep 2025, at 06:46, John Smith <deltafo...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/CAGTinV6gy9ttPnDjrv6TfqdzgP6tEpUpP8OFi3NHFVxrnUOTsg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Graham Eddy]

ditto. just waiting for it to settle, then deploy

⊣GE⊢

[John Smith]

Then the documentation is wrong, because that's not how it's working in practise.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/2F168EE7-5941-4AEB-9AAF-60EBCCBE5FC3%40btinternet.com.

[Alex Vanuxem]

For what is worth : meteobridge has also implemented wow be as a new weather network and it's working fine. With solar and with correct pressure readings.

Grtz

Alex

Op wo 24 sep 2025, 11:42 schreef John Smith <deltafo...@gmail.com>:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/CAGTinV7kX89SoBt-LZdPxpDSm_7_yW3bV0_3hJxNu04ExFn4iQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Glenn McKechnie]

Spent some time trying to understand this and what might have changed, We were using absbaromin to get the corrected readings when it was first implemented, and as John said this was because baromin gave readings that were too high. That now seems to have flipped, we're back to ridiculous highs again.

We started back around the 16th, and all the pressure data prior to the 19th @ 19:45 is missing for Aus. So ? ; one of life's little mysteries I guess.

Rather than questioning my sanity any further, I've checked out the development driver for restx.py and am using it in place of the previous one.

Now barometer = baromin works, as does pressure = absbaromin

We are back to sane values. The development driver works.

Comparing the output to the official BOM values from the local airport, I'm within range.
They are at 435 metres, I'm at 455 metres - close enough

Cheers

 Glenn

Various WeeWx addons at
https://github.com/glennmckechnie

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[Tom Keffer]

I see one possible point of confusion. For baromin, they say

baromin

number

Relative Pressure i.e. pressure adjusted to sea level (Inch of Mercury)

This seems like they expect an adjustment only for altitude, not temperature. If that's the case, then the correct WeeWX observation type would be "altimeter", not "barometer".

@John Smith : could you try making the switch and see if that makes a difference in your results?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/CAAraAzi1K%3Du6kGVhTzCymJjJe21N1MTTO7ahx9m_%2BU-TncT4YQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Smith]

@Tom

Yes that seems to work...

[John Smith]

I now only have 'altimeter': 'baromin=%.3f', I removed the pressure line

[Ton vanN]

Have tried to trace back, but absolutely no mentioning at the WOW-partner-websites of MetOfficeUK (= KNMI and MetEireann) about an upcoming shutdown for WOW-UPLOAD, causing serious doubt about the report at GitHub.
Or is it misinterpretation related to a change in the datahub providing DOWNLOAD of meteodata from MetOfficeUK?

Can somebody point/recall to a weblink to the said shutdown-message from MetOfficeUK, as confirmation of the source-info? 

Lacking that confirmation the creation of the new upload to wow.meteo.be looks like a solo-action from KMI/RMI for creation of a parallel WOW-channel. 

Op donderdag 25 september 2025 om 07:15:06 UTC+2 schreef John Smith:

[steepleian]

The wow.metoffice.gov.uk is still alive and kicking. There was a change of process which meant users had to migrate their accounts by a certain date or lose access. No suggestion it was closing.

https://claydonsweather.org.uk

On 25 Sep 2025, at 09:13, Ton vanN <ton...@gmail.com> wrote:

Have tried to trace back, but absolutely no mentioning at the WOW-partner-websites of MetOfficeUK (= KNMI and MetEireann) about an upcoming shutdown for WOW-UPLOAD, causing serious doubt about the report at GitHub.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/e405aa8e-6490-4181-b7db-580b39a552ban%40googlegroups.com.

[steepleian]

@Ton,

I think you may have hit the nail on the head with your conclusion.

https://claydonsweather.org.uk

On 25 Sep 2025, at 10:09, steepleian <steep...@btinternet.com> wrote:

The wow.metoffice.gov.uk is still alive and kicking. There was a change of process which meant users had to migrate their accounts by a certain date or lose access. No suggestion it was closing.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/86CB1AA6-2C20-485F-8E7B-1F68CE904051%40btinternet.com.

[Jimi Lawson]

@Ton vanN & @steepleian

I came to the same conclusion after an extensive internet search (I only found 2 references to this, 1 on this thread and 1 on WOW-BE) and I also contacted the UK MET Office and asked the following questions

1. I currently upload my weather station data to my site (Well Road Weather) on the Met Office WOW Will the DataPoint retirement affect this ? If do how do I continue to submit Data ?
2. I also currently download a 7 day forecast from the MET office will this continue or will I have to access it a different way.
3. I used to be able to upload weather cam images to WOW by FTP but this no longer seems to work, is it discontinued? if so will there be an alternative method available ?

The answers were

1. No, the removal of DataPoint will not affect uploading data to WOW.
2. A service called Weather DataHub will be taking over from DataPoint, through there you can download forecasts. Please see further information here: https://datahub.metoffice.gov.uk/The WOW FTP server has been retired. 
3. If anyone wishes to upload webcam images they'll have to use their own FTP server. Steps for this can be found here: https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/support/webcams 

Straight from the horses mouth is good enough for me, I won't be changing my upload to UKMO

Jimi

[Tom Keffer]

@John Smith glad that worked for you.

Everyone: all of this led me to take a look at what the UK WOW wants. It's even more confusing. Rather than have a well-defined API, they let the user choose what "baromin" means. 

Pressure & MSLP:

Some weather stations record Mean Sea Level Pressure, and some record Station Pressure (also referred to as Air Pressure). The Site Definition in WOW will be used to determine which pressure measurement to use. If your site specifies a unit for Air Pressure, and MSLP is marked as 'Not Captured', then baromin will be treated as an Air Pressure reading. Otherwise it will be treated as an MSLP reading. To edit your site definition and ensure the correct pressure is selected, visit the edit pages of your site and the options for pressure will be near the bottom. Ensure one is set to 'hectopascals (hPa)' and the other is set to 'not captured'. WOW will then automatically work out the other measurement and store it for you.

I don't know what they mean by "If your site specifies a unit for Air Pressure." In any case, we send "barometer", which is pressure corrected for altitude and temperature. Reading this very confusing passage, I think we should send "altimeter" and remind users to mark MSLP as "Captured." 

Any other opinions?

-tk

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/4cf23976-ad1e-4de2-a0ba-caf6b80c1b40n%40googlegroups.com.

[John Smith]

I assume they mean some kind of setting on their website for each station, but I just looked then and didn't find anything...

[John Smith]

NM just found it...

Pressure At Station Not Captured  Hecto Pascal  Millibar
Mean Sea-Level Pressure Not Captured  Hecto Pascal  Millibar

Doesn't look obvious though, which is why I overlooked it...

[Greg Troxel]

Tom Keffer <tke...@gmail.com> writes:

> I don't know what they mean by "If your site specifies a unit for Air
> Pressure." In any case, we send "barometer", which is pressure corrected
> for altitude and temperature. Reading this very confusing passage, I think
> we should send "altimeter" and remind users to mark MSLP as "Captured."
>
> Any other opinions?

I see later you can specify hPa or mb. That's funny because they are
the same unit, vs mmHg or inHg.

So the question ends up being "what is MSLP". This is such a good
question, there is a huge document about it:

https://library.wmo.int/records/item/59469-methods-in-use-for-the-reduction-of-atmospheric-pressure

Basically, different countries use various various formulas for
reduction of station pressure to SLP. From memory, there are broad
groups about use of water content vs not.

So

1) It seems really off that the Met Office isn't more precise.

2) In an international data set, it's a really interesting question
whether each station should use the nationally-appropriate reduction
instead of all using the same (UK?) reduction.


I am unclear on what's changed since 1966. But I bet that there isn't
a single standard for SLP.

(Yes, I realize ICAO/airplanes use a common definition of altimeter
pressure. But that is not really concerned with weather; it's about
having your pressure altimeter be right when you arrive someplace else.)