A complete online weather station with all six classic weather instruments — thermometer, barometer, hygrometer, anemometer, wind vane and rain gauge — showing live readings for any location worldwide. Free, no signup, no app, works in any browser.
Live air temperature in °C and °F. Includes feels-like temperature, dew point, 24-hour chart, and a built-in unit converter.
Live atmospheric pressure in hPa, mbar, and inHg. Shows 24-hour trend, 3-hour change, and a clear weather interpretation.
Live relative humidity, dew point, and comfort index. See how humid the air is right now and how it compares over the last 24 hours.
Live wind speed in km/h, mph, and m/s with gusts, average wind, Beaufort scale classification, and a 24-hour wind chart.
Live wind direction in degrees and 16-point compass bearing. Includes a full direction guide and short-term forecast.
Today's rainfall in mm and inches with a 24-hour bar chart, weekly and monthly totals, plus rainfall intensity classification.
A weather station is a complete set of weather instruments that measure and record the fundamental atmospheric variables at a single location. The classic weather station combines six instruments — thermometer, barometer, hygrometer, anemometer, wind vane and rain gauge — and together they produce a full picture of current weather conditions.
Every official weather observation site on Earth, from a remote arctic outpost to a major international airport, uses some version of this same six-instrument setup. The hardware ranges from delicate Victorian glass thermometers to ultrasonic 3D wind sensors costing tens of thousands of dollars, but the variables being measured are exactly the same: temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and rainfall.
An online weather station does the same job using a web browser. Instead of physical hardware in your garden, the readings come live from professional weather stations operated by national meteorological services around the world. You can search any city, get all six readings in one place, and view trends and forecasts — all without buying or maintaining hardware.
A complete weather station has six fundamental instruments. Each one measures a different atmospheric variable, and together they cover everything a meteorologist needs to describe the current weather.
| Instrument | Measures | Common units | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thermometer | Air temperature | °C, °F, K | The most fundamental weather variable. Affects every other condition. |
| Barometer | Atmospheric pressure | hPa, mbar, inHg | The single best indicator of approaching weather changes. |
| Hygrometer | Relative humidity | %, dew point °C/°F | Determines how the temperature feels; predicts fog and dew. |
| Anemometer | Wind speed | km/h, mph, m/s, knots | Critical for storm forecasting, sailing, aviation, wind energy. |
| Wind vane | Wind direction | Degrees, compass points | Reveals which weather system is influencing your location. |
| Rain gauge | Liquid precipitation | mm, inches | Drives water resources, agriculture, and flood forecasting. |
A thermometer measures air temperature. Modern weather stations use electronic thermistors or platinum resistance thermometers that report temperature in real time to the nearest tenth of a degree. The classic Victorian glass-and-mercury design is still recognisable, and is the icon most people associate with the word thermometer. Our live online thermometer shows current air temperature in both °C and °F, plus feels-like temperature and dew point, for any location worldwide.
A barometer measures the weight of the column of air above a location, which we call atmospheric pressure. Pressure is measured in hectopascals (hPa) or inches of mercury (inHg), with sea-level pressure typically around 1013 hPa or 29.92 inHg. The barometer is meteorology's most important short-term forecasting instrument: falling pressure usually means worsening weather, rising pressure means improving conditions. Our live online barometer shows current pressure plus the all-important 3-hour pressure trend.
A hygrometer measures the amount of water vapour in the air, usually expressed as relative humidity in percent. 100% humidity means the air is saturated and cannot hold any more moisture (this is when fog or dew forms). The dew point is a closely related measurement that tells you the temperature at which water vapour would condense. Our live online hygrometer shows both relative humidity and dew point, plus a comfort classification (dry, comfortable, humid, oppressive).
An anemometer measures wind speed. The most familiar design is the cup anemometer — three or four hemispherical cups on rotating arms — invented by Irish physicist Thomas Romney Robinson in 1846. Modern professional weather stations also use ultrasonic anemometers with no moving parts. Wind speed is reported in kilometres per hour (km/h), miles per hour (mph), metres per second (m/s), or knots in marine and aviation contexts. Our live online anemometer shows current wind speed, gusts, average wind, and the Beaufort scale classification.
A wind vane (or weathervane) measures wind direction. By convention, wind direction refers to where the wind is coming from, not where it is going — a "north wind" is blowing from north to south. Direction is reported in degrees (0–360°, where 0° is north) or as 16-point compass bearings (N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, etc.). Our live online wind vane shows wind direction with both numeric degrees and a clear compass display.
A rain gauge measures the depth of liquid precipitation that has fallen over a given period. The simplest type is just a calibrated cylinder, but professional weather stations use tipping-bucket rain gauges that record each 0.1 mm or 0.01 inch of rain electronically. Rainfall is the foundation of agriculture, water resources, and flood forecasting. Our live online rain gauge shows today's rainfall, a 24-hour bar chart, and weekly/monthly totals.
Physical home weather stations are popular hobbyist hardware — Davis Vantage Pro, Ambient Weather WS-2902, Ecowitt and others sell well — but they have real limitations:
An online weather station like vweatherstation.com solves all four problems at once. The data comes from professionally maintained instruments at official observation sites, which are correctly sited and continuously calibrated. You can switch between locations instantly — check the weather at home, at your destination, at your boat's mooring, all in one browser tab. And it costs nothing.
For users who want their own physical weather station data displayed online with a public dashboard URL, our PWS service connects compatible home stations (Ecowitt, Ambient Weather, Davis, La Crosse and others using the Weather Underground upload protocol) to vweatherstation.com.
The live readings on every instrument page come from the global Open-Meteo network, which aggregates real-time observations and forecasts from dozens of national meteorological services including:
The accuracy of each reading reflects the nearest professional weather station to your chosen location. In populated areas the nearest station is usually within a few kilometres; in remote areas it may be tens of kilometres away. For more on data sources and limitations see our disclaimer.
Online weather instruments are as accurate as the data sources behind them. Professional weather stations operated by national meteorological services are calibrated to international standards: temperature accurate to ±0.2°C, pressure to ±0.3 hPa, humidity to ±2%. The instruments themselves are inspected and recalibrated on regular schedules, and the data passes through quality-control filters before publication.
The main source of difference between an online reading and what you experience at your exact location is distance — the online value reflects the nearest official station, which may be a few kilometres away. Microclimate effects (urban heat islands, valley fog, coastal sea breezes) can produce real differences over short distances. For most use cases this is not a problem; for site-specific work, connect a personal weather station to vweatherstation.com via our PWS service.
Beyond the six instruments on this page, vweatherstation.com offers several other live weather tools:
For a quick overview of all live weather data — temperature, humidity, pressure, wind, rainfall — for your location or any city, see live weather data.
Yes. All six instruments, all the live data, all the city pages — completely free, no signup required. The site is supported by display advertising. There is no premium tier and no paywalled features.
No. vweatherstation.com works in any modern browser on any device — phone, tablet, laptop, desktop. No app, no plugin, no extension needed. You can also bookmark any instrument page for quick access from your phone's home screen.
Each instrument page shows the last 24 hours of readings as a chart. For longer historical records, the relevant variable hub pages (temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, rainfall) include city pages with monthly and annual climate context.
Yes. The PWS service lets you stream data from any Weather-Underground-compatible station (Ecowitt, Ambient Weather, Davis, La Crosse and many others) to a free public dashboard with its own URL on vweatherstation.com.
Among consumer hardware, popular choices include the Davis Vantage Pro2 ($600+, professional-grade), the Ambient Weather WS-2902 ($150–250, mid-range), and Ecowitt stations ($100–500, modular). Choice depends on budget, climate, and whether you want to expand with extra sensors. All of these models can be connected to vweatherstation.com via our PWS setup instructions.