It isn’t among the newest products and, of course, it’s not among the best-known from the French IoT company, but the Netatmo Weather Station is certainly one of the brand’s most distinctive products, and not only because it plays a surprisingly interesting yet superfluous role, but because—years later—no other company has ever produced an ecosystem like this: with the Netatmo Weather Station it will be possible to monitor weather conditions in a DIY fashion, thanks to an internal temperature (and air quality) sensor, an external station and two additional accessories with which it is possible to monitor wind and the amount of rainfall.
Useful? Not really. Functional? A lot. And, especially considering the (very limited) reliability of smartphone weather apps, gathering all these data (along with much more precise forecasts) is a luxury I simply cannot do without since 2015.
Netatmo Weather Station Original review: precise and reliable, you will say goodbye to forecast apps
Package contents and installation
The Netatmo Weather Station is a kind of ecosystem made up of three products. The main kit is the one that includes the indoor sensor and the outdoor unit, to which an optional anemometer and rain gauge can be added. The real brain is the indoor unit that will stay connected to power and will be used to configure all the other sensors: the pairing is extremely simple and is accompanied by a graphic tutorial suitable even for people with less experience.
All the other modules, however, will run on battery and must be positioned so as to maintain wireless connectivity with the internal unit. The only installation constraint concerns the external module, which to ensure proper temperature measurement must be placed so that it never comes into direct sunlight. The maximum distance between the various sensors and the central internal module can be about 100 meters, or a few tens of meters if you have a thick perimeter wall.
Weather conditions monitoring and the app
Once the system is active, the Netatmo Weather Station will start collecting all data related to weather conditions and, when it comes to millimetric measurements, let’s face it: Netatmo continues to set the standard and confirms itself as the real industry benchmark. The internal module is a true data sharpshooter and handles monitoring virtually everything around you with meticulous precision.
To give you a few concrete numbers, temperatures are measured in a range from 0 to 50 °C with a ridiculously small margin of just ±0.3 °C, while humidity (from 0 to 100%) is calculated with an error margin of ±3%. But the real highlight is that nothing escapes it: atmospheric pressure is tracked between 260 and 1260 mbar (with an approximation of only ±1 mbar), and there is tight control over air quality thanks to the CO2 reading, which ranges from 0 to 5000 ppm while maintaining a surgical accuracy of ±50 ppm up to the 1000 ppm threshold. To close this ultra-complete sensory package there is the ambient noise detector, capable of assessing acoustic comfort from 35 to 120 dB with a ±3 dB deviation. In short, a true control station!
Moving on to the external module, the device handles monitoring outdoor conditions across a wide operating range, detecting temperatures from -25 °C to +60 °C, maintaining the same precision with a minimum deviation of ±0.4 °C. Humidity measurement and a general assessment of air quality are also provided.
The real novelty of this iteration, however, lies in extended support for specific environmental parameters. The base enables the indication of PM2.5 particulate matter, the UV index and the concentration of Pollen, with a detailed classification among trees, herbs and grasses. This is a substantial functional upgrade, designed especially for those living in busy urban contexts or who need to constantly monitor seasonal allergies.
However, there is a fundamental technical aspect to clarify to properly frame the product. Contrary to what you might expect from such an upgrade, the new parameters are not physically measured by dedicated hardware sensors integrated into the station. The values are instead extrapolated in real time by cross-referencing external databases. Consequently, we are faced with a purely software-side implementation, even though the company emphasizes the need to own the new base to unlock access to this information. It is a questionable architectural choice that will disappoint those who expected a real upgrade to onboard sensing.
And regardless of the value you want to explore, all data collected by each of the station’s sensors will be viewable on the smartphone both numerically and in graphical form, with very clear and intuitive charts to decipher.
These are things that can be analyzed in more detail through the ecosystem’s web interface, but all of them are accessible also via the smartphone, albeit in a slightly different format: in the app, information is divided into two sections: the upper section shows external values, while the lower section shows internal values.
There is also a social aspect. By purchasing the Netatmo Weather Station you will be able to choose whether to participate in a real-time updated map where all ecosystem users can share with others the external weather conditions. In this way, you can monitor the temperature, wind and rainfall in real time across different areas of your city and, clearly, worldwide.
If you already have a Netatmo thermostat, you could connect it to the weather station to feed the energy-saving algorithm with additional data to understand when it’s appropriate to switch the heating on, even based on real external conditions. Furthermore, all products are compatible with IFTTT, enabling triggers in special cases: for example, when wind rises too much you could be alerted to close windows or exterior blinds, and the same goes for rain.
Accuracy of the measurements
Putting the Netatmo Original Weather Station 2025 to the test in the field, real-world results confirm top-tier stability and reliability. Comparing temperature and humidity readings with independent calibration tools, the accuracy proved absolute, demonstrating the excellent hardware calibration of the device.
On the environmental quality front, the dedicated CO2 sensor behaves in a highly consistent and responsive manner. The system handles alerts perfectly, sending timely notifications to your smartphone as soon as the air in the room becomes contaminated and needs replacement. The built-in sound level meter for assessing acoustic comfort also performs well, accurately recording even the smallest decibel fluctuations.
Translating the analysis into daily use, the Netatmo ecosystem shines for how regularly and consistently it updates on-screen parameters. A fundamental added value for this kind of device is the total solidity of the connection: during testing, there was no network drop or software anomaly, ensuring continuous monitoring without hiccups.
Netatmo Anemometer and Rain Gauge
One of Netatmo’s strengths is its scalability. You can add several internal sensors as well as the anemometer and rain gauge. Personally I have been using both external devices for some time: both will connect to the central indoor station and will be operational in a few minutes. They run on batteries, and the concept is very simple: the rain gauge will measure rainfall in millimeters, while the anemometer will detect wind.
Sia il pluviometro che l’anemometro, inferiormente integrano un foro per fissarli piu saldamente: e8 della stessa dimensione e filettatura dei tipici treppiedi ed anche in questo caso, potrebbe essere essenziale per il corretto posizionamento dei sensori.
Both sensors must be positioned perfectly flat to ensure readings stay precise. In my case, I mounted them on a dual camera mount that was fixed to the balcony railing, and in both cases I had no problems.
The anemometer can calculate wind speed in real time and remember the day’s strongest gusts, while the rain gauge can track real-time rainfall, calculate daily rainfall, and even provide a forecast of the expected millimeters for the next 24 hours.
Too bad, however, that each module costs about 69 euros. Not exactly a mainstream price, especially considering the initial amount needed to bring home the main weather station; without it, the system would not function.
Price and considerations
The price of the Netatmo Original Weather Station 2nd generation is 169.99 euros on Amazon where, currently, it is on sale at 139 euros. It is also possible to purchase different bundles, which will include one or more external accessories: to buy the entire ecosystem the figure becomes a bit more challenging, but it depends on the available bundles. A figure worth weighing carefully, which will appeal mainly to weather statistics enthusiasts (like me) but for the rest of us ordinary mortals might seem perhaps excessive.
Nevertheless, it is a high-quality ecosystem that delivers exactly what it promises and offers data that are easy to decipher and precise in every respect. The installation is very straightforward, but the placement of the external sensors is less so: it is essential that they are positioned correctly, otherwise the whole thing would lose its meaning.
It is clearly a niche product, which, in reality, few will appreciate: since I have been using it (and it’s been seven years now), I have stopped using the weather app, full of ads or with forecasts that are not very precise.
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