Support & FAQ

You need a personal weather station that is already uploading data to either AmbientWeather or Weather Underground. You do not need to buy a new station.

Compatible providers:

You need two keys from your AmbientWeather account:

• Go to ambientweather.net/account and scroll to the API section. Click Create Application Key and give it any name (e.g., "HomeWX").
• On the same page, copy your API Key (the shorter key, sometimes called the device key).
• In HomeWX, open Settings via the menu button, then tap AmbientWeather under Weather Providers.
• Paste both keys and tap Test Connection to verify them.
• Tap Save.

• Open Settings via the menu button, then tap Weather Underground under Weather Providers.
• Tap Sign In with Weather Underground.
• Enter your WU account email and password.
• HomeWX automatically imports your API key and all registered station IDs.

If you have multiple stations registered on WU, all of them are imported and available in the station switcher.

Yes. Connect both providers in Settings and all your stations from both services will appear together in the station switcher. You can switch between them freely from the main menu.

Your API keys may have been entered incorrectly, or the connection test did not pass. Go to Settings, tap your provider (AmbientWeather or Weather Underground), re-enter your credentials, and use Test Connection to confirm they work before saving.

HomeWX picks the right formula automatically based on conditions:

When it is cold and windy (below 50 degrees F with winds over 3 mph), it shows the NWS wind chill. Otherwise it shows the heat index-based feels-like temperature.

The comfort label is derived from the dew point and tells you how the humidity actually feels rather than showing a raw percentage. The labels are:

Dry · Comfortable · Muggy · Oppressive · Dangerous

This label also appears in a smaller form below the hero temperature on the home screen, and in the Comfort tile in the detailed view.

This is your personal monthly comparison. It compares today's high temperature to your own station's average high for the same calendar month, calculated from your prior-year history.

It requires at least 7 days of prior-year history for the current month to appear. It uses only your own data — no external weather service comparison.

Notable Conditions cards appear on the home screen only when something genuinely worth your attention is happening. They disappear automatically when the condition passes.

Drag down anywhere on the home screen to trigger a manual refresh. The timestamp at the bottom of the screen shows when data was last successfully fetched.

Tiles shown depend on your Detail Level setting:

Change Detail Level in Settings → Appearance.

A few things to check:

1. Your Detail Level may be set to Minimal or Standard. Go to Settings → Appearance and set it to Detailed to see all available tiles.

2. Specialty tiles (Lightning, Soil, Air Quality, CO2, Leaf Wetness) only appear if your station hardware actually includes that sensor. No sensor, no tile — HomeWX does not display placeholder tiles for hardware you do not have.

3. Each specialty tile must also be individually enabled in Settings → Appearance.

Tap the menu button (three lines) and select Records. HomeWX tracks five personal records from your own station history:

Hottest Day · Coldest Day · Wettest Day · Highest Gust · Lowest Pressure

The Records sheet has two tabs: All Time (overall records across your full history) and By Month (records broken down by calendar month). Tap any month pill at the top to filter. Months without data are dimmed.

Records become available after HomeWX has collected 14 days of history. The message includes a count of how many days have been accumulated so far.

If you also see a "Loading historical data..." banner, history is still being fetched in the background. No action is needed — records will update automatically as more data arrives.

Yes — your station history is stored locally on your device and is not currently backed up to iCloud. If you delete the app, the history is lost. Reinstalling will start fresh.

If you use Reset App in Settings, your history is preserved — Reset App only clears your credentials and preferences, not the local database.

Each alert has a built-in cooldown period so you are not repeatedly notified about the same ongoing condition.

• Open Settings → Alerts → Threshold Alerts.
• Toggle any alert on.
• Use the + and - stepper to set your threshold. Thresholds display in your current unit system (Imperial or Metric).

Alerts save automatically as you change them — there is no Save button. Tap Settings → Alerts → Alert History to see a log of every notification HomeWX has sent.

• Go to iPhone Settings → Notifications → HomeWX and confirm notifications are enabled.
• Open HomeWX Settings → Alerts → Threshold Alerts — a warning banner will appear there if notifications are currently blocked.
• Check that your alert threshold is set to a level that your current conditions would actually cross.

Open Settings and use the Imperial / Metric segmented control under Units. The change applies everywhere in the app immediately — tiles, hero, records, history, and the microclimate tile all update at once.

When enabled, HomeWX syncs the following across all your devices signed into the same Apple ID:

• Unit preference (Imperial or Metric)
• Display settings (detail level, background style, etc.)
• Alert thresholds
• API keys (via iCloud Keychain)

Reset App (Settings → Reset App) clears your API credentials, all preferences, and your WU call counter, then returns you to the setup screen.

It does not delete your locally stored station history. If you reconnect to the same station after a reset, HomeWX will recognize it and resume adding to its existing history rather than starting over.

Go to Settings → Appearance → Hero Style. You can choose a font style and weight for the large temperature number on the home screen. A live preview card at the top of the picker shows exactly how your selection will look before you commit.

You can also toggle Liquid Glass Tiles and switch the background between Dynamic (animated, weather-reactive) and Static (neutral gradient) from the same screen.

The Microclimate tile answers a question many personal weather station owners wonder: is my backyard actually warmer or cooler than the official conditions reported for my area?

HomeWX fetches the current observation from the nearest NWS ASOS station (official airport-grade instruments) and compares it to your station's current temperature. The result appears as something like:

+4°F warmer · KBHM · 8 mi

This means your backyard is 4 degrees F warmer than the Birmingham Airport station, 8 miles away. The NWS public API is free — no account or key required.

Check each of the following:

• Microclimate Comparison is toggled on in Settings.
• Your Detail Level is set to Standard or Detailed (the tile does not appear in Minimal mode).
• Your station reports GPS coordinates. AmbientWeather stations always include coordinates. Weather Underground stations include them when the current observation JSON includes lat/lon.
• You are in US territory. The NWS API covers the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories only.
• Your device has an active internet connection — the NWS API call is separate from your station data fetch.

• Long-press on your iPhone or iPad home screen until icons jiggle.
• Tap the + button in the top-left corner.
• Search for HomeWX.
• Choose your preferred widget size and tap Add Widget.

Station name, current temperature, feels-like temperature, today's high and low, the conditions narrative, humidity, wind, pressure, daily rain total, and a last-updated timestamp.

The widget updates automatically each time HomeWX refreshes in the background. You do not need to open the app for the widget to stay current.

If you have an Apple Watch paired to your iPhone, HomeWX automatically sends a snapshot of your current conditions to the Watch after every successful data load. No separate Watch app installation is required — the data is sent via WatchConnectivity when both devices are in range of each other.

Tap the menu button (three lines) and look for Switch Station at the top of the menu. This opens a submenu listing all available stations from both providers, with a checkmark next to the currently active one.

Selecting a station switches the home screen immediately and triggers a fresh data load for the newly selected station.

No. Each station builds its own independent local history. Switching stations does not clear or overwrite another station's data — when you switch back, all its history and records are exactly as you left them.

This error appears when HomeWX has valid credentials but every API call failed. Common causes:

• Temporary API outage — AmbientWeather and Weather Underground occasionally have brief service interruptions. Wait a few minutes and tap Retry.

• Rate limit hit — WU limits accounts to 1,500 API calls per day. If you see this error late in the day alongside a high API usage count in Settings, you may have reached the daily limit. Usage resets at midnight.

• Network issue — check that your iPhone has a working internet connection.

HomeWX is designed to stay well within WU's 1,500 calls/day limit:

• Polling: one call every 5 minutes (288 calls/day maximum)
• History: fetched at most every 30 minutes for the pressure trend
• Backfill: historical data fetched using only the remaining budget after monitoring is reserved

If usage is unexpectedly high, it may be because the app is open on multiple devices simultaneously, each polling independently. Enabling iCloud Sync keeps your settings consistent across devices but does not reduce per-device polling.

Some tiles require specific hardware. If a tile you expect is missing:

• Confirm your Detail Level is set to Detailed in Settings → Appearance.
• Check that the toggle for that tile is on in Settings → Appearance.
• Confirm your station hardware actually includes that sensor. Indoor Temp requires a built-in indoor sensor. UV and Solar require UV/solar sensors. Specialty tiles (Lightning, Soil, Air Quality, CO2, Leaf Wetness) require the corresponding optional hardware.

The dynamic background updates after each data refresh. If conditions have changed recently, pull down on the home screen to trigger a manual refresh and the background will update to match.

If you prefer the background not to animate at all, go to Settings → Appearance and switch Background to Static.