radar-dash

A weather-radar wall display for Home Assistant: three Lovelace custom cards, plain JavaScript, no build step, no API keys.

• wall-radar-card loops live NEXRAD radar over a dark or satellite basemap, with a short-range forecast and NWS warning outlines. This is the supported part. One line of YAML is enough to run it.
• wall-horizon-card is the full-screen wall layout built around it: clock, date, outside temperature, forecast, room thermostats and a few household controls. It ships as-is, adapt it: it was drawn for one 1280 x 800 tablet, and every household feature is optional.
• wall-thermostat-card is a thermostat dial for one climate entity, for any dashboard. It is the Horizon layout's thermostat, as a card of its own. It does not need the radar.

The radar and Horizon cards are United States only. Their radar (NEXRAD, MRMS), forecast (HRRR) and warnings (NWS) cover the US; elsewhere the basemap draws and the radar stays empty. The thermostat card uses only your own climate entity and works anywhere.

The screenshots use placeholder entities and made-up readings; the two maps show Oklahoma City.

Install with Claude Code

If you use Claude Code or another coding agent, paste this:

Clone https://github.com/rall-digital/radar-dash and follow AGENTS.md to install it on my Home Assistant.

Before you start the agent, set your Home Assistant URL and a long-lived access token in your terminal (HA_URL and HA_TOKEN; AGENTS.md step 1 has the exact lines). The agent never needs the token pasted into the chat. It finds your weather, temperature and climate entities, installs the files, and adds the radar as a new view. It takes a backup first, shows you the YAML, and writes only when you say yes. AGENTS.md is the full procedure, including rollback.

Install with HACS

1. In HACS, open the three-dot menu, choose Custom repositories, add https://github.com/rall-digital/radar-dash with type Dashboard.
2. Find radar-dash in HACS and download it. HACS registers the resource /hacsfiles/radar-dash/wall-radar-card.js for you. That one resource is all you need: it loads all three cards.
3. Add a card to a dashboard:

   type: custom:wall-radar-card
   

   (or custom:wall-horizon-card, or custom:wall-thermostat-card with an entity).

Updates just work: HACS gives that resource a new ?hacstag= on every update, and the card passes it on to every file it loads (the other two cards, their library, Leaflet and the fonts), so no browser keeps an old copy. Do not add resources for wall-horizon-card.js or wall-thermostat-card.js, and do not delete the one HACS made.

Upgrading from 1.1.x

Version 1.1.x asked you to add /hacsfiles/radar-dash/wall-horizon-card.js and /hacsfiles/radar-dash/wall-thermostat-card.js (or the /local/radar-dash/ ones) as extra resources. Remove them now: under Settings > Dashboards > three-dot menu > Resources, delete the wall-horizon-card.js and wall-thermostat-card.js entries, keep the wall-radar-card.js one, and reload the page on each screen. Those extra entries carry no version, so a browser can keep an old copy of a card for weeks, and it can load before the current one. They also trip HACS, which on every update rewrites the FIRST resource whose URL starts with /hacsfiles/radar-dash to the radar card. node tools/lovelace-ws.mjs inspect lists any that are left under warnings, verify prints a WARN: line for each, and the browser console names one that loaded first.

Then check for a second radar entry. If a 1.1.x extra entry was listed above the radar one, the 1.2.0 download turned it into another /hacsfiles/radar-dash/wall-radar-card.js?hacstag=... entry. You recognise it in the Resources list as two wall-radar-card.js lines with different ?hacstag= numbers (or the same one twice). Keep the /hacsfiles/ one (HACS manages it; with two, the first of them); if there is no /hacsfiles/ entry, keep the first. Delete the other: it can load an old copy. The cards work meanwhile, but a screen may keep old code until you do. inspect and verify name the entry to delete.

The card loads Leaflet, its stylesheet, the Horizon library and two fonts from the folder it was loaded from. HACS downloads the whole dist/ folder, so they sit next to it. If the map area stays blank after a HACS install, check that /hacsfiles/radar-dash/leaflet.js opens in your browser; if it does not, use the manual install below.

Install by hand

1. Copy everything in dist/ (the fonts/ folder included) to /config/www/radar-dash/ on your Home Assistant.
2. Settings > Dashboards > three-dot menu > Resources > Add resource: URL /local/radar-dash/wall-radar-card.js?v=1.2.10, type JavaScript module. That one resource loads all three cards.
3. Reload the browser, then add the card as above.

When you update the files later, change the ?v= suffix on that resource URL (for example to the new version) so browsers fetch the new copies. The card passes its own suffix on to every file it loads.

wall-radar-card

type: custom:wall-radar-card

With nothing else set, the card centres on your Home Assistant location (Settings > System > General) and uses the nearest NEXRAD radar. More examples are in examples/; every option is in docs/options.md. The ones people change most:

option	default	meaning
height	525px	Card height. 100vh for a full-screen panel view.
center_latitude / center_longitude	your Home Assistant location	Map centre. Set both or neither.
zoom_level	8	Map zoom. Fractions work.
site	nearest NEXRAD radar	A site ID such as DMX, if you want a different radar.
source	hybrid	hybrid: one radar's high-resolution data (250 m) near it, MRMS (1 km) in its gaps and beyond. site: that radar only. composite: the national mosaic.
basemap	hillshade_dark_coast	Also hillshade_dark, satellite, ink, night, or auto (day/night by sun.sun).
day_basemap / night_basemap	ink / night	What basemap: auto shows.
palette	neon	Also smooth (the default before 1.2.8), nws, universal_blue, twc, n0q.
frame_count	15	Observed frames, from the last 60 minutes.
frame_delay	400	Milliseconds per frame.
forecast_hours	2	HRRR forecast frames after "now", drawn desaturated. 0 turns them off.
warnings	true	NWS warning outlines: tornado red, severe thunderstorm yellow, flash flood green, special marine orange.
show_labels	false	Place names.

By default the map is static: no dragging, zooming or controls. It is meant to be looked at, not operated. interactive: true lets a person zoom (4 to 11) and pan it; interactive: buttons gives only the + / − buttons, so a swipe over a card in a scrolling view still scrolls the page. Not for Horizon, which ignores radar.interactive. A resize puts home back where home_position says, at the current zoom. While home is off screen, the numbers at home (data-home-dbz, data-rain-at) are unknown.

How it behaves

• Every frame preloads hidden, three at a time, and the loop starts when the set has loaded. New scans join as they appear and the oldest drops out.
• Every radar pixel is decoded back to dBZ and recoloured in a canvas, so the palette, the fade and the smoothing are the card's own.
• If the radar site's newest scan is more than 20 minutes old, or the site is offline, the card switches to the national composite and switches back when the site returns.
• On a failed poll the card keeps the frames it has and backs off (2 minutes, doubling to 30).
• A tile that fails is retried once; a hole left in a loaded frame is asked for again on later polls, a few times.
• A card detached for 60 seconds frees its map and rebuilds when re-attached.

Watchdog

A wall tablet's page can run for weeks without a reload, so the card heals itself (watchdog, on by default):

• Every 60 seconds it checks that polling is alive, and restarts it if not.
• No successful poll for watchdog_restart_min (20) rebuilds the card. For watchdog_reload_min (45) it reloads the page, at most once per 2 hours. If the browser's storage is unavailable it never reloads, so it cannot loop.
• A dry sky is healthy: a poll the network answered counts as successful, echoes or not.
• When the page becomes visible again or the network returns, it polls at once. Time spent asleep is not counted as failing.

Set watchdog: false to turn all of it off, or either minute value to 0 to turn that step off.

wall-horizon-card (as-is, adapt it)

type: custom:wall-horizon-card
temperature_entity: sensor.outdoor_temperature
weather_entity: weather.forecast_home
rooms:
  - entity: climate.living_room
    name: Living room

This is a household display that was built for one home and then made configurable. What that means in practice:

• The layout is a fixed 1280 x 800 design, scaled to fit the screen. It suits a landscape tablet in a panel view. It is not responsive and not meant for phones.
• It needs only the one resource, wall-radar-card.js, which loads it.
• 24-hour clock, English, Fahrenheit. The clock is always HH:MM in 24-hour form and the date is in US English. Temperatures are shown as whole numbers with a degree sign and no unit conversion: the forecast bar colours (cool below about 62, warm above) and the thermostat's fallback range (61 to 88) assume °F. With a Celsius system the numbers are right but the colours and that fallback range are not.
• The data-source credit line runs along the bottom edge (show_attribution, on by default). The embedded map's own credit would sit under the layout's bottom shade, so Horizon draws it instead.
• Every entity is optional. Anything you do not configure is not drawn. With only type set you get the radar, the clock and the date.
• Up to 3 climate rooms. Tapping one opens a thermostat sheet (target, mode, fan).
• A "callout" bubble next to your location can say what the radar and forecast mean right now: rain starting or ending, a warning over you, or a quiet line about the day. It is off by default; show_callout: true turns it on.
• The household controls are specific: a switch drawn as a round Xbox-logo button (gray off, green on), two projector-screen buttons that each trigger an automation, hidden volume taps on the date and the temperature, a hidden "select" tap on the clock, and a now-playing pill. Each needs entities, scripts or automations that you provide. They are not created for you. examples/horizon.yaml shows all of them with placeholder entities, and examples/packages/scene_switch.yaml is one way to make the switch.

option	default	needs	meaning
radar	{}		Options for the embedded radar card.
temperature_entity	unset	sensor	Outside temperature.
weather_entity	unset	weather	Condition line, 4-day forecast, callout.
sun_entity	sun.sun	sun	Day/night.
rooms	[]	climate (up to 3)	Room temperatures and thermostat sheet.
music	unset	media_player	Now-playing pill; a tap opens the music sheet (transport, progress, volume).
music_volume	unset	media_player	The receiver the music sheet's volume controls (for example a Denon).
music_volume_max	1		The loudest level the music sheet can set, 0 to 1.
show_attribution	true		The credit line along the bottom edge.
show_callout	false		The weather bubble beside your location.
show_condition	false		The current condition (icon and words), top right.
show_high_low	false		Today's high and low after the condition, top right.
xbox	unset	switch (+ optional sensor)	The scene toggle.
screen	unset	two automations	Up / down arrow buttons beside a "Projector Screen" label.
volume	unset	two scripts, targets

Full types and defaults: docs/options.md. If you want something different, fork it: the card is one file of plain JavaScript plus a library of pure functions.

wall-thermostat-card

type: custom:wall-thermostat-card
entity: climate.living_room

A thermostat dial for one climate entity, sized for an ordinary dashboard column. Drag the handle, tap the track, or use the − and + buttons (or the arrow keys) to set the target; the change is sent about a second after you let go. Below the dial are the entity's own hvac modes and, if it has them, its fan modes. The dial, the drag rules and the send logic are the same code as the Horizon layout's thermostat sheet.

option	default	meaning
entity	required	One climate entity.
name	the entity's friendly name	The title on the card.

It calls only climate.set_temperature, climate.set_hvac_mode and climate.set_fan_mode, only on entity, and only after you touch the card. examples/thermostat.yaml is a starting point.

How it handles what thermostats differ on:

• Range and step come from the entity's min_temp, max_temp and target_temp_step. With no step, it uses 0.5 when Home Assistant is set to °C and 1 otherwise. Halves are shown as 21.5°.
• Units: it shows the entity's own numbers with a plain °, as Home Assistant reports them, and converts nothing. Only the fallback range for an entity without min_temp/max_temp (7 to 35 in °C, 45 to 95 otherwise) depends on Home Assistant's unit setting.
• Off, Dry and Fan only: the dial takes no input and shows the room temperature, dimmed. Pick a mode chip to turn it back on.
• Heat/Cool with a low and a high target (dual setpoint): shown, not adjustable. The status line reads "Auto 68° to 75°" and the span is drawn on the dial, but the dial has one handle, so the two targets cannot be changed from this card. Use Home Assistant's own thermostat card for that. A heat_cool or auto mode with a single target works normally.
• Unavailable (or the entity does not exist): "Unavailable", no chips, and taps do nothing.
• Text is English. Mode chips use the entity's own hvac_modes order and names; unknown fan modes are shown with their own names.

Kiosk tips

• Use a panel view so the card fills the screen, and a kiosk browser such as Fully Kiosk Browser, or any browser in full-screen mode.
• Give the wall device its own Home Assistant user, without admin rights.
• Keep the screen on and let the watchdog handle stale data. You should not need a scheduled page reload.
• Older or slower tablets: lower frame_count, set forecast_hours: 0, keep radar_retina: false. The defaults hold about 23 frames of canvases in memory.
• Large or HiDPI screens: on a 2x (HiDPI) screen every frame keeps one 256 px canvas (256 KB) per radar tile on screen, and detail: 1 (the default) asks for four times the tiles of detail: 0. At 1x, detail: 1 still asks for four times the tiles, but the canvases are the same size as at detail: 0 and the picture is no sharper. On one full-screen 2x display the card held about 390 MB of canvases and the Chrome tab crashed; detail: 0 with frame_count: 8 held about 125 MB. The cost is sharpness: at 2x, detail: 0 draws the radar at half the screen's resolution.
• After updating the card files, reload the page once on the wall device.

Data sources

All sources are free and need no key. The cards call them straight from the browser; nothing goes through a server of ours, and the cards send no analytics. Please keep the credit line on (show_attribution), or credit the providers elsewhere on your display.

what	provider	credit shown on the map
NEXRAD site radar, MRMS, national composite, HRRR forecast tiles, NWS warning polygons, radar site list	Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM), Iowa State University, serving NOAA / National Weather Service data	Radar, forecast and warnings: NOAA/NWS via Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM)
Satellite imagery (satellite, ink, and half of hillshade_dark_coast)	Esri World Imagery	Imagery: Esri, Vantor, Earthstar Geographics, and the GIS User Community
Hillshade (hillshade_dark, hillshade_dark_coast)	Esri World Hillshade Dark	Hillshade: Esri, Vantor, Airbus DS, USGS, NGA, NASA, CGIAR, N Robinson, NCEAS, NLS, OS, NMA, Geodatastyrelsen, Rijkswaterstaat, GSA, Geoland, FEMA, Intermap, and the GIS user community
Night basemap (night)	NASA GIBS, VIIRS Black Marble 2016	Night lights: NASA Black Marble via NASA GIBS
Place labels (only with show_labels)	CARTO basemaps, built on OpenStreetMap data (ODbL)	Labels: © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO

The Esri lines are each service's own copyright text as it read on 2026-09-30. The credits are plain text, not links: on a wall display a tapped link would navigate the kiosk away from the dashboard. The links are here instead. The same text is on the element as data-credits, whether or not it is drawn.

These are volunteer-run or public services. IEM in particular is a university project that serves this data to everyone for free: keep the default poll rates, and if you build something heavier on top, read their terms and talk to them first. The basemap providers have their own terms of use, and Esri's and CARTO's in particular set conditions on who may use their tiles and how; you are responsible for meeting them on your display. IEM says its material is in the public domain and that attribution "would be appreciated"; NWS data is in the public domain; NASA asks to be acknowledged as the source.

Bundled: Leaflet 1.9.4 (BSD 2-Clause), the Figtree and Fredoka fonts (SIL Open Font License) and the Material Design Icons Xbox logo path (Apache 2.0). See LICENSES/.

Troubleshooting

symptom	check
"Custom element doesn't exist" (any of the three cards)	The wall-radar-card.js resource is not registered, or the browser has a stale copy. Check Settings > Dashboards > Resources, then hard-reload.
Card area stays empty	Home Assistant has no location set and the card has no center_latitude/center_longitude. Set either.
Basemap draws, no radar	Outside the US, or no rain: the radar layer is transparent when it is dry. Set show_status: true to see whether data is arriving.
An old Horizon or thermostat card after an update	A leftover 1.1.x resource entry: see Upgrading from 1.1.x.
Want to see what the card is doing	Inspect the element: data-status, data-mode, data-site, data-frames (see docs/options.md).

Development

There is no build. dist/ is the product: edit the files and reload. Issues and pull requests are welcome.

The tests run in Node 22 or later with no dependencies and nothing to install. They import the files in dist/ directly, and never reach a network or a Home Assistant:

npm test            # or: node --test "test/*.test.mjs"

tools/lovelace-ws.mjs is a small Home Assistant websocket helper (Node 22+, no dependencies) used by the agent install: read-only inspection, a dashboard backup, and a few guarded writes that refuse without --confirm-write. Its local files (backups, the view being added) go to radar-dash-work/, which .gitignore covers.

License

MIT. Copyright (c) 2026 RALL DIGITAL LLC. See LICENSE.

Not affiliated with Home Assistant, NOAA, the National Weather Service, Iowa State University, Esri, NASA or CARTO. This is a hobby display, not a safety tool: do not rely on it for warnings.

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Made by Rall Digital. Contact: [email protected]