A weather warning can come straight from the National Weather Service, get delivered across a mesh network, and land on someone's phone with no internet connection and nobody typing it by hand. That is not a mock-up. That is MeshWX, and as of today it is publicly available, free, and open source.
MeshWX monitors official weather alerts, shortens them for LoRa, and sends them over Meshtastic, MeshCore, or both. I built it after Hurricane Helene made it painfully clear how quickly normal communications can go down in a disaster. This is the launch, what it does, how it works at a high level, and who it is for.
The Problem MeshWX Solves
Meshtastic and MeshCore are good at exactly the moment traditional networks fail. When the cellular network is overloaded or down, a local mesh can keep people talking to one another. That is the whole appeal of low-power LoRa radio: it does not depend on towers, carriers, or the internet.
But there is a gap. The mesh itself has no idea when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, a flood warning, or any other alert. People on the mesh can still message each other, but unless someone somewhere else happens to receive that warning and manually reposts it, the people in the affected area never see it. In the exact situation where a warning matters most, the mesh stays silent. That is the problem MeshWX was built to fix.
What MeshWX Is
MeshWX is a free, open-source, self-hosted application that bridges official weather alerts onto your local mesh. It watches the National Weather Service alert feed for the counties you choose, filters down to the warnings that actually matter, shortens each one so it fits inside a LoRa message, and broadcasts it over your connected radios. It is one dashboard doing one job well: keeping your mesh informed when severe weather moves in.
It is not a cloud service and not an app everyone has to download. It is software you run on your own hardware, in your own location, under your own control.
One Install, the Whole Mesh Covered
Here is the part that makes MeshWX practical instead of a burden: it runs on one computer, in one location, and everyone else on the mesh gets the benefit automatically.
That one machine can be a Windows PC, a Linux box, a Docker host, or a Raspberry Pi. It monitors the alerts, and when a matching warning comes in, it pushes the message onto the mesh through your radio. From there the warning spreads across the network like any other message, hop to hop, and anyone in range sees it on their phone, no internet required and nothing for them to install. You set it up once; your whole community is covered.
How It Works, at a High Level
Under the hood MeshWX is straightforward, and by design you do not have to think about most of it. The flow is three steps, from the National Weather Service to the mesh:
- Monitor. MeshWX polls the official NWS alert feed for the counties and forecast zones you selected in the dashboard.
- Filter and shorten. Only the alert types you enabled move forward. The key details are compressed into a clear, mesh-sized message that fits LoRa's tight byte limit, and MeshWX remembers what it already sent so it only rebroadcasts meaningful updates and cancellations.
- Broadcast. The message goes out through each enabled radio and appears in the channels your local users already monitor.
You pick your counties and alert types from a web interface instead of wrestling with raw zone codes, and the dashboard shows the alerts being watched, the connected radios, and the history of what has been sent.
Meshtastic, MeshCore, or Both
MeshWX can drive Meshtastic and MeshCore at the same time. If you run both networks, you connect one radio for each, and every qualifying alert goes out over both, each on its own port and channel. You can point it at a dedicated weather channel or at the channel your group already watches, and you can bench-test each radio right from the dashboard before you trust it in the field. Run one network or run both; MeshWX does not care.
Free, Open Source, and Self-Hosted
MeshWX is free. There is no account to create and no subscription to pay. You download the latest release, run it on your own hardware, and that is it.
It is also open source, with the full code public on GitHub. That matters for something meant to run in an emergency: you can read exactly what it does, verify it, run it entirely on your own equipment, and keep it working without depending on anyone else's servers staying online. Windows users can grab a packaged release; Linux and Docker users can install it directly with the commands on the MeshWX site. For something whose whole point is resilience when the internet is gone, being self-hosted and open is not a nice-to-have, it is the point.
Who Needs It
I originally built MeshWX with county emergency management officials in mind, the people responsible for getting a warning to a community when the usual channels have failed. But it fits a lot of situations beyond that:
- County and local emergency management. A reliable way to push official warnings out over a mesh your area already runs.
- Community mesh networks. Add useful, automatic weather traffic to an existing Meshtastic or MeshCore community.
- Neighborhoods and prepared families. Keep everyone in range informed when a storm knocks out the towers.
- Remote sites, camps, and events. Share tornado, flood, and severe-storm information across properties where cellular coverage is weak or nonexistent.
If you or your county runs a local mesh, this is for you, and it is worth passing along to the people who would put it to use.
One Honest Caveat
MeshWX is a supplemental warning system, not a certified one. It is not designed to replace NOAA Weather Radio, wireless emergency alerts, or local sirens, and it depends on your internet connection to reach the NWS, on your hardware, and on LoRa propagation. Where it earns its place is in a disaster, when those traditional systems are down or out of reach and you still need to get the message to the people in your county. Keep an official source running too, and treat MeshWX as one more layer, not your only one.
MeshWX at a Glance
What It Does
Monitors official National Weather Service alerts, filters and shortens the warnings that matter, and broadcasts them over your local mesh.
Networks
Meshtastic, MeshCore, or both at once, each on its own radio, port, and channel, with separate live and test channels.
Runs On
One computer: Windows, Linux, Docker, or a Raspberry Pi, plus at least one compatible USB radio.
Cost
Free, open source, and self-hosted. No account, no subscription. Source on GitHub.
Where to Get It
brokensignal.tv/MeshWX, with releases and source on GitHub.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is MeshWX?
A free, open-source, self-hosted app that monitors NWS alerts for your counties, filters and shortens the warnings that matter, and broadcasts them over Meshtastic, MeshCore, or both, so your local mesh gets weather warnings even with no internet. It is available at brokensignal.tv/MeshWX and on GitHub.
Does everyone on the mesh have to install it?
No. MeshWX runs on one computer in one location and sends warnings out onto the mesh. Anyone in range receives them on their own Meshtastic or MeshCore device, with nothing to install and no internet needed.
What do I need to run it?
One computer running Windows, Linux, Docker, or a Raspberry Pi, an internet connection so it can reach the NWS feed, and at least one compatible USB radio. Running Meshtastic and MeshCore together takes two radios, one per network.
Is it really free?
Yes. Free, open source, and self-hosted. No account, no subscription. You run it on your own hardware and the code is public on GitHub.
Can it replace NOAA Weather Radio?
No. MeshWX is a supplemental tool for getting warnings out over a mesh when traditional systems are down, not a replacement for them. Always keep an official source such as NOAA Weather Radio, wireless emergency alerts, or local sirens.
Get MeshWX
MeshWX is available right now. If your county or local mesh could use a direct line to severe weather information, download it, connect a radio, and set up the areas you need to watch. And if you know a group that would put it to work, send it their way.
MeshWX Is Live
Free, open source, and self-hosted. Give your mesh a direct line to National Weather Service warnings, even when the internet is gone.
Get MeshWX
View the source on GitHub