Description
Global Weather Pro is a free WordPress weather widget plugin that displays accurate weather forecasts and critical severe weather alerts for any location in the world. It gives you three ways to put weather on your WordPress site: a comprehensive header widget, a compact sidebar widget, and a native Weather Widget block for the block editor and Full Site Editing themes. Effortlessly display current weather conditions, detailed 7-day forecasts, air quality, and severe weather alerts to keep your visitors informed and engaged.
The plugin also ships stunning, AI-generated animated images for all 60+ WeatherAPI weather conditions, displayed in the header widget. Make the widgets your own with 18 professional typefaces, and self-host every one of them with a single click for a fully Google-free, privacy-friendly setup.
All weather data and alerts are sourced from WeatherAPI, a well-known and trusted weather provider, ensuring reliable and professional-grade forecasts you can count on. Global Weather Pro handles all API communications through our dedicated service, meaning you get reliable data from top providers like WeatherAPI without needing to sign up for, manage, or pay for your own weather API key.
Check out the live demos to see both widgets in action: Sidebar Demo
Header Demo
Features:
- Critical Weather Alerts: Keep your audience safe and informed with timely notifications for severe weather events, sourced directly from WeatherAPI. Alerts are prominently displayed within the widget to ensure maximum visibility.
- No API Keys Needed: Instantly set up and deliver weather forecasts without any third-party signups or costs. Global Weather Pro handles all API communications through our dedicated service.
- Block Editor & Full Site Editing Ready: A native “Weather Widget” block works in the block editor, in Full Site Editing templates, and anywhere else blocks are allowed. The block is server-rendered and shares the exact same output pipeline as the classic widgets and shortcodes, so the weather block, the widget, and the shortcode all produce identical results.
- Per-Block Location & Theme Overrides: Each Weather Widget block can override the site-wide location and color theme, so you can show local weather for a different city on a different page or template without touching the global settings. Blocks with no override simply inherit your saved settings.
- Responsive on Every Screen: Both widgets adapt to the space they are given. On phones the header widget reflows into a single-column card that opens collapsed, so the current conditions are visible immediately and the full parameter readout and forecast strips are one tap away.
- Dual Widget Design: Comes with two specialized widgets, one designed for prominent header placement and another optimized for sidebars, ensuring a perfect fit for your theme’s layout.
- Professional Dark & Light Themes: Choose between a rich, innovative Dark Mode featuring a slate-based palette with frosted glass effects and cyan accents, or a clean, polished Light Mode, both designed for a modern weather app aesthetic.
- AI-Generated Animations: Stunning AI-generated animated images for all 60+ weather conditions are displayed in the header of the weather widget, creating a beautiful user experience.
- Accessibility Compliant (WCAG): Built with comprehensive ARIA attributes, semantic HTML, keyboard navigation support, and reduced motion preferences for an inclusive experience for all users.
- Detailed Hourly & Daily Forecasts: Provide a true, 24-hour, hour-by-hour forecast and a 7-day forecast. Display key metrics like temperature, chance of rain, humidity, UV index, air quality, and more.
- Shortcode Support: Includes separate, reliable shortcodes for both the header and sidebar widgets ([gwpro_header_weather] and [gwpro_sidebar_weather]) for easy embedding anywhere on your site.
- Flexible Placement (Blocks, Widgets & Shortcodes): Seamlessly add weather to your header, footer, or sidebar using the block editor, the classic Widgets screen, or a shortcode in any post or page.
- Font Customization: Personalize the widget’s appearance by choosing from 18 professional Google Fonts organized into Sans-Serif, Serif, Monospace, and Display categories, including Roboto, Open Sans, Inter, Montserrat, EB Garamond, Merriweather, Playfair Display, Roboto Mono, Poppins, and more. The widget layout stays pixel-consistent no matter which font you choose.
- Privacy-First Font Self-Hosting: Prefer not to link your site to Google’s Font API? One click on the settings page downloads all 18 font families directly to your own server (each with its license file included), so visitor browsers never contact Google Fonts. Any font not yet downloaded automatically falls back to Google’s CDN, so nothing ever breaks.
Whether you run a WordPress blog, a business website, or a community portal, Global Weather Pro makes it easy to share up-to-date local weather with your audience.
Third-Party Services
Global Weather Pro API
-
Fetches weather data.
-
No personal data collected.
-
Accessed at:
-
Privacy Policy: https://globalweatherpro.com/gwpro-privacy-policy
WeatherAPI
- Provides weather forecasts and alerts.
- Location data (entered by site owner) sent; no personal data collected.
- Accessed at:
- Weather condition icons served from: https://cdn.weatherapi.com/weather/
- By default, the Global Weather Pro service above makes these requests. If the site owner enters their own WeatherAPI key, the site’s server sends them to WeatherAPI directly, including that key and the location (or its coordinates).
- Terms of Service: https://www.weatherapi.com/terms.aspx
- Privacy Policy: https://www.weatherapi.com/privacy.aspx
Geoapify API
- Provides geolocation services.
- No personal data collected.
- Accessed at: https://api.geoapify.com/v1/geocode/search
- Privacy Policy: https://www.geoapify.com/privacy-policy/
Google Fonts API
– This service is used to load and display the custom font selected in the widget settings, but only for fonts that have not yet been self-hosted. Once a font is downloaded via Settings > “Download & Self-Host All Fonts,” it is served entirely from your own server and visitor browsers never contact Google.
– Personal Data: When a font loads from Google’s CDN, Google may collect data such as visitor IP addresses in order to serve the font files. Self-hosted fonts send no visitor data to Google.
– Access: Visitor browsers access https://fonts.googleapis.com (stylesheet) and https://fonts.gstatic.com (font files) only while a selected font is not self-hosted. When the site owner runs the one-click download tool, these same two endpoints are contacted once, server-side by your WordPress site, never by your visitors, to fetch the font files.
– Privacy Policy: Refer to Google’s privacy policy here: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
Third-Party Fonts & Licenses
This plugin offers 18 Google Fonts as font-family options. When downloaded via Settings > “Download & Self-Host All Fonts,” the actual font files are saved to this plugin’s own /uploads/ directory (one subfolder per font, each including a LICENSE.txt). Both licenses below permit free use, modification, and self-hosted redistribution:
- Apache License, Version 2.0 (Roboto, Roboto Mono) — http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1 (Open Sans, Inter, Lato, Source Sans Pro, Raleway, Montserrat, Nunito, EB Garamond, Merriweather, Playfair Display, Lora, Crimson Text, Source Code Pro, Fira Code, Poppins, Quicksand) — https://scripts.sil.org/OFL
Until a given font is self-hosted, it is instead loaded live from Google Fonts under the same license terms; see “Google Fonts API” under Third-Party Services above for that data flow.
Screenshots
Blocks
This plugin provides 2 blocks.
- Global Weather Pro Header Displays the comprehensive weather header: current conditions with AI-generated animations, hourly and 7-day forecasts, air quality, and severe weather alerts.
- Global Weather Pro Sidebar Displays the compact weather sidebar widget: current conditions, forecast, and severe weather alerts in a narrow layout.
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to
/wp-content/plugins/global-weather-pro, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugin screen. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu.
- Go to Settings > Global Weather Pro and save the location you want the weather widget to display.
- Add the weather widget to your site using whichever method suits your theme:
- Block editor or Full Site Editing theme: Edit any post, page, or template, click the block inserter, search for “Weather Widget,” and place the block. In the block sidebar you can choose the header or sidebar layout and, optionally, override the location and color theme for that block only.
- Classic theme: Navigate to “Appearance” > “Widgets” and add either the “Global Weather Pro Header” or “Global Weather Pro Sidebar” widget to your desired widget area.
- Shortcode: Use [gwpro_header_weather] to display the header widget, or [gwpro_sidebar_weather] to display the sidebar widget, anywhere shortcodes are accepted.
FAQ
-
How do I add a weather widget to my WordPress site?
-
There are three ways, and all of them produce the same widget.
Block editor or Full Site Editing theme: open any post, page, or site template, click the block inserter, and search for “Weather Widget.” Choose the header or sidebar layout in the block settings sidebar.
Classic theme: navigate to “Appearance” > “Widgets” in your WordPress admin panel and add either the “Global Weather Pro Header” or “Global Weather Pro Sidebar” widget to your desired location, such as your header, footer, or sidebar.
Shortcode: embed the widgets directly into your posts and pages using [gwpro_header_weather] for the header widget or [gwpro_sidebar_weather] for the sidebar widget. Note that the original shortcode, [gwpro_global_weather_pro], now functions as an alias for the sidebar widget shortcode for backward compatibility, so any existing instances of the old shortcode continue to work without issue.
-
Does this weather widget work with Gutenberg and block themes?
-
Yes. Global Weather Pro registers a native “Weather Widget” block that works in the block editor, inside Full Site Editing templates and template parts, and anywhere else blocks are allowed. The block is server-rendered and reuses the same output pipeline as the classic widgets and the shortcodes, so there is one source of truth for the markup, the scripts, and the weather data.
This matters on a block theme, because block themes have no “Appearance” > “Widgets” screen at all. On those themes, use the block (or a shortcode block) rather than the classic Widgets screen.
-
Can I show weather for more than one location on the same site?
-
Yes, using the block. Each Weather Widget block can set its own location, which overrides the location saved in the plugin settings for that block only. A block with no location set simply inherits your global setting. The same applies to the dark and light color themes, so a block placed in a dark page template can differ from the site-wide default.
The classic widgets and the shortcodes always use the location saved under Settings > Global Weather Pro.
-
Do I need a weather API key?
-
No. Global Weather Pro routes all API communication through our own dedicated service, so you never have to sign up for, manage, renew, or pay for a weather API key of your own. Install the plugin, save a location, and the forecasts and severe weather alerts start working immediately.
If you would rather use your own key, you can. Enter a key from WeatherAPI.com under Settings > Global Weather Pro, or define
GWPRO_WEATHERAPI_KEYin wp-config.php, and your site will request forecasts and alerts from WeatherAPI directly. The key stays on your server and is never sent to visitors’ browsers. Free WeatherAPI plans include a 3-day forecast, so the 7-day strip shows 3 days on a free key. -
Does Global Weather Pro use AI to generate the forecasts?
-
No, and the distinction matters. Global Weather Pro uses artificial intelligence for its visual layer only. Every one of the 60+ weather conditions reported by WeatherAPI (condition codes 1000-1282) has its own AI-generated animated image, displayed in the header of the weather widget so the animation always matches the reported condition, including day and night variants for clear skies.
The forecasts, air quality readings, and severe weather alerts themselves are not AI-generated or AI-predicted. They come directly from WeatherAPI, a professional meteorological data provider. Your visitors see AI-created artwork paired with real, trusted weather data.
-
Do the AI weather animations slow down my site?
-
No. All AI-generated animation files are bundled with the plugin and served from your own site, so displaying them requires no third-party image service, no AI API key, and no per-request AI costs. Nothing is generated on the fly at page load. The artificial intelligence work was done in advance, so the animations add no latency.
-
How does the widget display severe weather alerts?
-
Severe weather alerts are sourced from WeatherAPI and displayed prominently inside the widget so visitors see them immediately. Alerts appear alongside current conditions in the header widget, the sidebar widget, and the block, and no configuration is required. Alerts for the widget’s location surface automatically whenever the provider issues them.
-
Does this weather widget work with my WordPress theme?
-
Global Weather Pro is designed to work with most WordPress themes, classic and block-based alike. If you experience any issues, please create a topic on our official WordPress support forum so our team and the community can assist you: Official Plugin Support Page
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Global Weather Pro: Weather Widget for WP” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Global Weather Pro: Weather Widget for WP” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
For the complete version history (all releases), see the readme.txt revision log: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/global-weather-pro/trunk/readme.txt
2.9.2 – 2026-10-03
- Change: Plugin Renamed to “Global Weather Pro: Weather Widget for WP.” The plugin’s display name previously ended in “for WordPress.” WordPress.org does not allow the word “WordPress” in a plugin’s display name or permalink, as it is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation, so the name now uses the permitted abbreviation “WP” instead. Only the name has changed. The plugin’s address on WordPress.org, its folder name, settings, widgets, blocks, shortcodes, and saved data are all unaffected, and no action is needed after updating.
2.9.0 – 2026-10-03
- New: Use Your Own WeatherAPI Key (Optional). Site owners can now enter their own WeatherAPI.com key under Settings > Global Weather Pro. With a key, forecasts and severe weather alerts are requested from WeatherAPI directly by your own server instead of through the Global Weather Pro service. Without one, nothing changes: the plugin keeps working with no key at all. The key is used only in server-side requests and is never included in the page or sent to visitors’ browsers.
- New: Key Check on Save. A newly entered key is tested with WeatherAPI before it is saved. If WeatherAPI rejects it, the previous setting is kept and the settings screen says why, for example a mistyped key, a used-up monthly quota, or a disabled key. If WeatherAPI cannot be reached at that moment, the key is saved unchecked.
- New: Key Problems Are Reported in Settings. If WeatherAPI later starts refusing the key, for example after the monthly quota runs out, the settings screen shows a warning explaining the problem. The warning clears itself once requests succeed again.
- New: Keep the Key Out of the Database. Defining
GWPRO_WEATHERAPI_KEYin wp-config.php supplies the key without storing it in the database. The constant takes precedence over the settings field, and the field is replaced with a note while it is set. - Change: Switching Data Sources Takes Effect Immediately. Adding, changing or removing the key refreshes the cached forecasts straight away from the new source. The stored place name is kept, since it does not depend on where the forecast comes from.
- Change: Forecasts Are Requested by Coordinates When Available. With your own key, the plugin sends WeatherAPI the coordinates found by the place name lookup rather than the location text, so landmarks and campuses that WeatherAPI cannot match by name still return the right forecast.
- Fix: The 7-Day Strip Showed Empty Columns When Fewer Days Were Available. The strip always drew seven columns, so a forecast with fewer days, such as the 3 days included with a free WeatherAPI key, showed the missing days as columns reading “undefined” with no icon. It now shows only the days the forecast contains.
- Change: Settings Page Version Badge. The version shown on the settings page is now read from the plugin itself rather than typed in separately, so it can no longer fall out of date.
2.8.6 – 2026-10-03
- Fix: A Slow Location Lookup Could Blank the Entire Widget. Turning the configured location into a place name was a separate request made while the page was being generated, and if it failed, the whole widget showed “Could not load weather data.” even though the forecast itself had loaded. The lookup now happens once, when the location is saved in Settings, and the result is stored permanently instead of in a cache that can expire or be cleared. Page loads no longer make a lookup request at all. If a stored result is not yet available, the widget shows the place name included with the forecast and retries the lookup in the background, so a lookup failure can no longer stop the forecast from displaying.
- Fix: The First Location Saved on a New Site Was Not Fetched in Advance. Saving a location for the very first time creates the setting rather than updating it, and only updates triggered the immediate cache refresh. The first visitor after setup therefore paid for every request. Both cases now refresh the cache straight away.
- Change: Background Requests Allow More Time. Scheduled refreshes and the lookup made when the location is saved now wait up to 20 seconds for the weather data service instead of 5, since no visitor is waiting on them. Requests made during a page load keep the short timeout. The new ‘gwpro_background_request_timeout’ filter adjusts the longer limit.
- New: Settings Warning When the Lookup Fails. If the place name lookup does not respond when the location is saved, the settings screen now says so and explains that the widget will use the forecast’s place name until the lookup succeeds.
For older releases, see changelog.txt.