Pro Weather· Updated
How to Set Up Weather Alerts for Your Home Weather Station
Your weather station collects data every minute, but you do not have time to watch it constantly. The real value comes from being notified when something important happens: a temperature drop that signals a frost risk, a wind gust that might damage property, a rain rate that suggests flooding, or an air quality spike that affects health.
This guide shows how to set up automated weather alerts for your Davis station, from built-in options to more flexible approaches.
What do you need for any alert system?
Every weather alert system needs three things: a station that is online and reporting to WeatherLink, a threshold you define (a high or low temperature, a wind gust speed, a rain rate, or an air quality value), and a delivery channel such as email. When a reading crosses the threshold, the system sends the notification.
The data always comes from your station, so it needs to be online and reporting to WeatherLink. From there, an alert system — whichever of the three options below you pick — checks the readings and sends the notifications.
Option 1: Pro Weather email alerts
If you use Pro Weather, alerts are built into the dashboard and do not require any additional setup beyond defining your thresholds.
To configure them:
- Open your Pro Weather dashboard and go to Alerts
- Choose a sensor type: Temperature, Wind Gust, Rain Rate, or PM2.5 Air Quality
- Set your threshold values. For example, temperature alerts can fire when the reading goes above OR below a value, so you can be notified of both heat and frost risks
- Choose whether the alert fires on a single reading or requires multiple consecutive readings (useful for ignoring sensor glitches)
- Enter the email address where you want to receive notifications
The full option-by-option walkthrough is in the alerts documentation.
The alerts are edge-triggered: you get one notification when the threshold is crossed, and another when the value returns to normal. This avoids flooding your inbox with repeated messages while the condition persists.
What each alert type is good for:
| Alert type | Typical uses |
|---|---|
| Temperature (above/below) | Frost warnings in spring and fall, heat warnings, greenhouse and cold-frame monitoring |
| Wind gust | Damaging gusts, documenting wind events, calling off unsafe outdoor plans |
| Rain rate | Heavy rain that could indicate flooding, knowing when a storm is passing through |
| PM2.5 air quality | Wildfire smoke events, poor air quality days, local pollution spikes |
Two of these deserve a closer look. For frost, do not set the threshold at freezing itself — your temperature sensor sits well above the ground, where the air is often warmer than the grass below it, so a lawn can frost while the thermometer still reads +2 °C. Our guide to predicting frost with your weather station covers what threshold to pick and why the dew point matters. For wind, alert on gusts rather than the average: gusts are what do the damage, and they routinely run well above the sustained wind speed — wind gusts vs sustained wind explains the difference.
Option 2: WeatherLink paid plan alerts
The WeatherLink Pro and Pro+ subscriptions include their own alert system. You can configure email and push notifications through the WeatherLink dashboard based on the same types of thresholds.
The limitation is that these alerts are tied to the WeatherLink platform and its interface. Your notifications come from WeatherLink, not from your own site or service, and they are only included if you pay for one of the upgraded plans.
Option 3: DIY alerts with the WeatherLink API
For maximum flexibility, you can build your own alert system using the WeatherLink v2 API. This is the most technical option but allows you to:
- Send alerts to multiple channels: email, SMS, Slack, Discord, or a custom webhook
- Apply complex logic, such as combining multiple sensor readings
- Log alert events to your own database for analysis
- Control every aspect of how and when notifications are sent
The basic approach is to periodically fetch current conditions from the API, compare the readings against your threshold values, and send a notification when a threshold is crossed. You could deploy this as a small script on a Raspberry Pi, a serverless function, or a scheduled task. You will need a v2 API key, which is free to generate from your WeatherLink account.
How do the alert options compare?
| Feature | Pro Weather alerts | WeatherLink alerts | DIY API alerts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Minutes, in-dashboard | Minutes, in WeatherLink | Hours of development |
| Notification channel | Email + push | Any (email, SMS, webhook) | |
| Threshold types | Temp, wind, rain, PM2.5 | Temp, wind, rain | Any sensor from API |
| Edge triggering | Yes (once when crossed) | Yes | You implement |
| Cost | Included with Pro Weather | Requires WeatherLink Pro/Pro+ | Free + your development time |
| Maintenance | None | None | You maintain the script |
Which alert option should you choose?
For most Davis owners, Pro Weather alerts hit the sweet spot: they are quick to configure, require no coding, and cover the most useful sensor types. The edge-triggered behavior means you get notified when something changes without being spammed.
If you need alerts sent to a channel other than email or want to combine multiple sensors with custom logic, a DIY approach with the WeatherLink API gives you full control. Just be aware that you are taking on the development and maintenance of that system.
If you already have a WeatherLink Pro or Pro+ subscription, their built-in alerts may already meet your needs, but they are tied to the WeatherLink ecosystem.
Common questions
Can my weather station send me a text when it freezes?
Not directly — a Davis station has no way to message you on its own. But its data reaches WeatherLink, and an alert service watching that data can. Pro Weather sends email alerts, which most phones surface as notifications; the WeatherLink app can send push notifications on paid plans; and a DIY script can send true SMS through a gateway service.
What is an edge-triggered alert?
An edge-triggered alert fires once when a reading crosses your threshold and once more when it returns to normal — instead of emailing you every ten minutes for as long as the condition lasts. You learn when a frost starts and when it ends, without forty identical messages overnight.
What temperature should I set a frost alert for?
Above freezing — 2 °C (36 °F) is a sensible starting point. Your temperature sensor sits well above the ground, and on calm, clear nights the ground can be several degrees colder than the air at sensor height. An alert at 2 °C gives you time to protect plants before the lawn actually frosts.
How do I stop false alarms from sensor glitches?
Require multiple consecutive readings before the alert fires. A single spurious value — a momentary sensor drop-out, a bird disturbing the anemometer — then gets ignored, and only a sustained condition triggers the email. Pro Weather offers this as a per-alert setting; in a DIY script it is a few extra lines of state-keeping.
Ready to set up alerts?
If you use Pro Weather, open your dashboard and configure your first alert. It takes about a minute. Not on Pro Weather yet? Start your site and your alerts will be ready alongside your live weather page in about five minutes.