Home Assistant Australian BoM Radar Loop

Animated radar loops and individual radar frames from Australian Bureau of Meteorology data for Home Assistant dashboards and AI-powered weather analysis.

Features

• 🤖 LLM Vision Ready: Individual PNG frames for AI-powered storm detection and analysis
• 🗺️ Choose Background: BoM official or OpenStreetMap (higher resolution with tile caching)
• 🎬 Animated Loops: Smooth GIF animations for dashboards
• 🌏 Multiple Radars: Overlay up to 3 radars for extended coverage
• 🏠 Location Marker: Show your home on the radar
• ⚡ Auto-Updates: Continuously fetches latest radar images

Installation

1. Add Repository to Home Assistant:

   • Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store → ⋮ (menu) → Repositories
   • Paste: https://github.com/safepay/ha-bom-radar-loop-addon

2. Install "Australian BoM Radar Loop" from the addon store

3. Configure in the Configuration tab:

   • Set your radar_product_id (see Quick Reference or RADARS.md)
   • Set your timezone (e.g., Australia/Melbourne)

4. Start the addon (enable "Start on boot" recommended)

Using in Home Assistant

⚠️ Important: You MUST use Local File camera integration + Picture Entity card to avoid caching issues.

Setup (Required)

1. Add Local File Integration:

   • Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Local File
   • File path: /config/www/bom_radar/radar_animated.gif
   • Name: "BoM Radar Loop"

2. Add Picture Entity Card to dashboard:

type: picture-entity
entity: camera.bom_radar_loop
camera_entity: camera.bom_radar_loop
camera_view: live
show_name: true
show_state: false

Note: Set both entity and camera_entity to camera.bom_radar_loop

Why? Simple picture cards cache images and won't update. Local File camera + Picture Entity ensures proper refreshing.

LLM Vision Analysis

Individual radar frames are perfect for AI analysis:

type: picture
image: /local/bom_radar/image_5.png  # Most recent frame

Five frames available: image_1.png (oldest) to image_5.png (newest). Use with Claude Vision, GPT-4 Vision, or other LLM tools for:

• Storm detection and tracking
• Rainfall intensity analysis
• Weather pattern recognition
• Automated weather alerts

Configuration

Basic

radar_product_id: IDR022      # Your radar (see Quick Reference below)
timezone: Australia/Melbourne
update_interval: 600          # Seconds (10 minutes)
background_type: bom          # "bom" or "openstreetmap"

Background Options

• bom (default): Official BoM background with customizable layers
• openstreetmap: Higher resolution street maps with automatic tile caching

BoM layers (only with BoM background): locations, catchments, topography, range

Optional Features

Multiple Radars (must be same range as primary, different station):

second_radar_enabled: true
second_radar_product_id: IDR953

Home Marker (shows on GIF only):

residential_location_enabled: true
residential_latitude: -37.8136
residential_longitude: 144.9631

Quick Reference

City	128km	256km
Sydney	IDR713	IDR712
Melbourne	IDR023	IDR022
Brisbane	IDR663	IDR662
Perth	IDR703	IDR702
Adelaide	IDR643	IDR642
Canberra	IDR403	IDR402

Full list: RADARS.md

Troubleshooting

Images not updating?

• Use Local File integration + Picture Entity card (not simple picture card)
• Check addon is running (green status)
• View addon logs for errors

OpenStreetMap not working?

• First run downloads tiles (30-60 seconds)
• Check logs for tile download errors
• Addon falls back to BoM if tiles fail

No images appearing?

• Check addon logs
• Verify /config/www/bom_radar/ exists
• BoM FTP may be temporarily unavailable

Output Files

Located in /config/www/bom_radar/:

• radar_animated.gif - Animated loop (5 frames) for dashboards
• image_1.png to image_5.png - Individual frames for LLM Vision analysis
• radar_last_update.txt - Timestamp information
• radar_status.json - Detailed radar status and availability (new in v1.0.8)

Access via /local/bom_radar/filename in dashboards and automations.

The status file includes real-time information about radar availability, offline detection, and frame generation - perfect for monitoring and automation. See DOCS.md for details.

Documentation

• Full Documentation: DOCS.md
• All Radars by State: RADARS.md
• Docker Installation: DOCKER.md

Support

• Issues: https://github.com/safepay/ha-bom-radar-loop-addon/issues

Credits

Radar data: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

License

MIT License