Weatherflow Tempest - which is the best integration for Home Assistant?

So, I am planning on getting a Weatherflow Tempest, and in doing my research for Home Assistant integration, I found that there are two distinct integrations:

Both of these look good, and I could figure out to install either of them. I am trying to figure out which is “best”, and I know that is a difficult question to answer.

Seems like the MQTT version has been around for longer, but REST seems like a better long term solution if I am reading these correctly.

Has anyone tried both of these and formed an opinon?

weatherflow2mqtt has more calculated sensors, but it is up to you if you wish to have an MQTT broker or not. I personally use weatherflow2mqtt.

Been running Mosquito for a long while, so that box is checked.

Sounds like it really just comes down to a preference of platform?

I a little more than that, but yes effectively. As a note the MQTT route has HA auto-discovery setup so those sensors will show up in HA without you having to add yourself.

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Thats a nice bonus!

So by accident I installed the REST version - because its the only one available through HACS. I should have manually installed it.

Either way, the REST version (programmed by the same guy as the MQTT version) also auto-created all the sensors, so both options are very similar.

I’m not entirely sure but I believe the hass-weatherflow2mqtt is completly local whilst the hass-weatherflow integration pulls certain data over the internet? I could be wrong though.

In HA 2023-10 there is now a third integration: WeatherFlow - Home Assistant
I don’t really understand why because there are already two solutions out there. Does anyone happen to know what the difference of this integration is compared to weatherflow2mqtt?

The new version WeatherFlow - Home Assistant included in the HA core has the advantage of being 100% local, so no data comes from the internet.

The weatherflow2mqtt version is a local and internet combination. The forecasts come from the Internet. Forecasts that will no longer be accepted in 2024.3. The author of this integration is currently working on a new integration for forecasts. GitHub - briis/weatherflow_forecast: Home Assistant integration for WeatherFlow Forecast

The Weatherflow version depends entirely on the internet and also includes forecasts that will no longer be accepted in 2024.3.

Weatherflow2MQTT is completly local if you dont need forecast (I use forecast from a government service).
Oh no what a pitty, dont tell me the amazing work of both @briis and @GlennHA was for “nothing” - local weather condition was kind of almost there (https://github.com/briis/hass-weatherflow2mqtt/issues/17) however it never made it to the final version. Is this going to be deprecated completly or only the forecast method?

No it will not be deprecated. I will only remove the forecast option, which can then be pulled from the WeatherFlow Forecast integration for the people who want that. That will keep WeatherFlow2MQTT completely local.

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Good news, I will go back with your version.:grinning:

Understood. I saw you added the option for REST API sensors for your “new” integration. Are these sensors locally pulled from the Tempest Device or over the internet from Weatherflow with the Token?

Yes, the sensors are now available. They are pulled from the Internet, as we have to call the Rest API anyway to get the forecast. If you want them locally, I suggest you use the new core integration and then combine it with the Forecast. (Just don’t check the box for Include sensors)

For daily and hourly forecasts, what is the best interval to refresh the data?

Every 1 hour. However, the integration updates by itself every 30-35 min if you only use Forecast, and if you add the Sensors, it updates every 1-5 min. So no need to do extra polling unless you need the data now (But no guarantee that WeatherFlow has updated the data).

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I intended to move to the new core integration, however I would be really keen if @GlennHA could implement the fully-local weather-condition. That would be THE feature that I was looking for. :slight_smile:

Honestly, for the the forecast - I did not try the Weatherflow forecast, but how can a forecast from overseas be better than your local forecast… Has somebody made some comparisons about Weatherflow forecast and local/national weather forecast yet?

FYSA → Forecast will be in the next release as a core integration. And if we’re lucky some sensors will make it in as well…

weatherflow is the local integration
weatherflow_cloud will be cloud/forecast integration

I also have a Weatherflow Tempest and love it, such a great device. at the moment I still use the deprecated HACS integration GitHub - briis/hass-weatherflow: Home Assistant Integration for WeatherFlow Stations which works great and exposes a lot of sensors.

I consider changing to the local integration WeatherFlow - Home Assistant Due to the fact that I have a lot of automations built with my existing sensors I would be glad to know more about the update cycles before I have to update a lot of automations.

precise question
In which intervals does the rain intensity gets updated via the local Weatherflow integration? I noticed in the Tempest App that its like +/- every 10-15 seconds (if there is a change). Is it the same interval as within the App due to the fact that it is local?

This information is very important to me because via the integration the update cycles for the rain intensity are like 1-2 minutes which is too long for my usecase.

has anyone feedback for the above question? would be glad to avoid unnecessary configuration-stuff.

Anyone have a tip for how to get the forecast data from the cloud integration into ESPHome?

I’m trying this:

sensor:
 - platform: homeassistant
    entity_id: weather.home
    id: wflow

but it seems to not return any data. I feel like I’m missing something but that’s the entity that seems to have the data:


I’m working on an ESPHome e-ink weather display and trying to sort out how to leverage the forecast data for it.