After more than a decade of supporting crowd-sourced weather observations and citizen science, the Met Office will begin retiring the Weather Observations Website (WOW) from January, with full decommissioning planned for late 2026.
WOW has played a vital role in enabling the public, voluntary climate observers, and international partners to contribute weather data across the UK and the world. WOW data contributes to the Met Office’s operational, research, and public engagement activities. It helps improve forecast accuracy, supports aspects of climate science, provides additional observations, and encourages collaboration between professionals and the public. Your contributions through WOW have made a real difference across these areas and we are incredibly grateful for the invaluable data and support you have provided over the years.
As we move towards the retirement of WOW, please be assured that your contributions will continue to benefit the Met Office right up until the site is decommissioned. In the meantime, we are focusing our efforts on maintaining the security and stability of the platform, ensuring it remains a safe and reliable resource for all users during this transition period.
While there will be no direct replacement for WOW in the UK, we plan on working directly with AWS (Automatic Weather Station) providers. While this means we will no longer have a direct connection with some of our citizen observers, we remain committed to receiving valuable data and as motivated as ever to collect your observations.
Thank you for being part of the WOW community and for your ongoing support.
