Soon, WOW-BE will undergo an important change: the UK Met Office has recently announced that they intend to stop managing the central data hub of WOW in the course of 2026. The RMI has decided to decouple the WOW-BE platform from the Met Office on December 1, 2025.

First, the good news: we will relaunch the platform under the name WOW-BE reboot. This way, owners of personal weather stations will continue to be able to link their station to a non-commercial, community-driven platform. For the RMI, this is also a logical choice, as measurements in diverse environments are becoming increasingly crucial.

We have taken this opportunity to implement several improvements compared to the old system. Registering a station has become much simpler, and is now available in Dutch, French, and English. In addition, we have added solar radiation to the weather variables. Finally, WOW-BE is now a truly open platform, with open data and open software.

Unfortunately, there is also some less positive news: due to the technical transition, all existing stations will need to be registered again. Moreover, the history of the current WOW stations cannot be transferred to the new environment. Each station will therefore start with a clean slate.