ClimWeb

ClimWeb is an open-source, Wagtail-based content management system and website template built specifically for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Africa, centered on publishing weather and climate information, CAP alerts, and georeferenced data.

What is ClimWeb?

ClimWeb is a specialized CMS distribution built on the Wagtail framework that lets meteorological services run a modern, mobile-friendly website without writing custom code. Inputs include news articles, weather forecasts, Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) 1.2 warnings, gridded climate datasets, vector geospatial files, event registrations, surveys, and email subscriber data; outputs are a public-facing website with interactive maps, an XML alert API, dashboards, and notification emails. The project is co-developed with NMHSs in Africa, is recognized as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance, and supports SDG 13 (Climate Action). More than 33 national services across Africa run ClimWeb in production, with additional deployments in progress.

Key Features

• CAP 1.2 warning composer — Create, preview, and publish Common Alerting Protocol 1.2 alerts with a moderated approval workflow, comment threads, email notifications, multi-language publishing, and an XML API for alert aggregators. Live CAP creation and editing preview, predefined drawable alert areas, and alert-to-alert reference linkage are included.
• Georeferenced data visualisation — Upload gridded data (forecasts, advisories, climate products) and vector point/area layers, overlay your CAP alerts, and pull external sources from satellites, Google Earth Engine, and regional or global producing centres to support impact-based forecasting.
• Event registration with Zoom integration — Build custom registration forms hosted on your website, automatically email invitation links to registrants as they sign up, track registrants, and let participants subscribe to your alert products at the same time.
• Decentralised content management — Assign individual staff members to manage different site sections, with per-section editor and moderator roles and defined publishing workflows, plus support for embedding YouTube and other multimedia.
• Email marketing and user analytics — Add sign-up forms that feed Mailchimp or Mautic, then analyse subscriber breakdowns by sector, gender, and geographic area, survey satisfaction trends, and website traffic via tools like Google Analytics.
• Survey creation and results dashboard — Create custom surveys hosted on your own site and analyse responses on interactive dashboards.
• Wagtail/Django foundation — Built on the open-source Wagtail CMS (Python/Django), with a Docker-based production deployment available through the wmo-raf/climweb-docker repository and full technical and user documentation on Read the Docs.

Who is it for?

• National Meteorological and Hydrological Services — use ClimWeb to replace static or outdated sites with a responsive CMS for public weather warnings, climate bulletins, forecast products, and national data portals.
• Hydrology and water-resource departments — run ClimWeb deployments such as Burkina Faso's Hydrology Department and Sudan's General Administration for Nile Waters Affairs to publish hydrological data and alerts.
• Regional climate and meteorological centres — adopt ClimWeb for centres like RCC Douala and RSMC Yaounde, or for national services in the 18 countries where CAP alerts appear in Google Search and Google Maps.

What can you do with ClimWeb?

• Issue CAP-compliant public warnings — Draft a storm or flood alert in the CAP composer, route it through an approver, publish it in multiple languages, and expose it through the XML API or Google Public Alerts where enabled.
• Build interactive data portals — Upload forecast grids and risk polygons to produce georeferenced maps for impact-based forecasts, advisories, and thematic climate products.
• Run engagement campaigns — Host event registrations with Zoom invitations, collect user feedback through surveys, and grow an email subscriber list via Mailchimp or Mautic integration.

How does ClimWeb work?

ClimWeb is deployed as a set of Docker containers using the climweb-docker repository, with local development steps documented on Read the Docs. After installation, editors manage the site through the Wagtail admin interface, creating pages, CAP alerts, events, surveys, and data visualisations; approved CAP alerts are published to the public site and to aggregator APIs.

Pricing

ClimWeb is open-source software, so there is no license fee or per-user cost. Adopting organizations are responsible for their own hosting and operations; the project publishes a Docker deployment stack and documentation to support self-management.

FAQ

Is ClimWeb free?

Yes, ClimWeb is open-source software and is recognised as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance. There is no purchase price or licensing fee; you pay only for your own hosting and any infrastructure you choose.

Which countries use ClimWeb?

More than 33 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in Africa run live ClimWeb sites, including Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. At least eight additional countries have deployments in progress, and Syria uses ClimWeb outside Africa.

Does ClimWeb support CAP alerts?

Yes. ClimWeb includes a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) version 1.2 compliant composer with an approval workflow, live preview, multi-language publishing, and an XML API for alert aggregators. It has onboarded 18 countries onto Google Public Alerts for search and maps visibility.

What tools does ClimWeb integrate with?

ClimWeb integrates with Zoom for event invitations, Mailchimp or Mautic for email marketing, Google Earth Engine and external satellite or regional data sources for geospatial visualisation, and Google Analytics for website traffic tracking.

What technology is ClimWeb built on?

ClimWeb is built on Wagtail, an open-source content management system written in Python on the Django web framework. It is designed to be customised by non-technical staff, and production deployments use Docker containers.