How to Develop a Power BI Dashboard with WeatherAPI

Power BI is a fantastic tool for visualizing data — and you can easily integrate live weather data into your reports too. In this blog, we’ll walk you through the process of building a real-time weather dashboard powered by WeatherAPI, and then we’ll add some Air Quality Index (AQI) indicators for a richer dashboard experience.

🎯 Why WeatherAPI?

WeatherAPI.com is a simple and powerful service that returns live, historical, and forecast weather data — perfect for Power BI. The data is available in JSON format, making it easy to process and transform.

🛠️ Prerequisites

• ✅ A free or paid account on WeatherAPI.com

• ✅ Power BI Desktop installed

• ✅ Basic Power BI data model knowledge

🔑 Step 1: Get Your WeatherAPI Key

1. Sign up at WeatherAPI.com, then copy your API key.

2. You’ll use this key to authenticate API calls.

🌐 Step 2: Build the API URL

For current weather data, use:

https://api.weatherapi.com/v1/current.json?key=YOUR_API_KEY&q=CITY_NAME

🧠 Step 3: Connect Power BI to WeatherAPI

1. Open Power BI Desktop.

2. Click Get Data → Web.

3. Enter your WeatherAPI URL.

4. Click OK.

🧹 Step 4: Transform the Data

Power BI will show a preview in the Power Query Editor:

• Expand the current record.

• Expand sub-records like condition or air_quality.

• Rename columns for clarity.

• Click Close & Apply.

📊 Step 5: Build Your Dashboard

Add:

• ✅ Cards for temperature, humidity, etc.

• ✅ Gauges for wind speed.

• ✅ Charts for daily variations.

And you can also set up filters/slicers for different cities.

🎨 Step 6: Styling & Interactivity

• Insert icons representing the current weather.

• Plot the map visual with city locations.

• Allow your users to select cities dynamically.

⚡ Step 7: Adding AQI Indicators with Reusable Measures

You can easily incorporate Air Quality Index (AQI) data into your report using the current.air_quality part of the WeatherAPI response.

Here’s a quick Power BI DAX pattern you can copy-paste and adapt to your needs:

🎨 Generic Template for AQI Color:

AQI Color TEMPLATE =
VAR AQI = ROUND(SELECTEDVALUE('Current'[current.air_quality.COLUMN_NAME]),0)
RETURN
SWITCH(
TRUE(),
AQI <= 50, "#43d946",
AQI <= 100, "#fff570",
AQI <= 150, "#ff9800",
AQI <= 200, "#d99343",
AQI <= 300, "#ff5b0f",
"#d95243"
)

💡 Simply copy this measure and replace COLUMN_NAME with the air quality column you want to check — for example:

• pm2_5

• co

• no2

🎨 Generic Template for AQI Suggestion:

AQI Suggestion TEMPLATE =
VAR AQI = ROUND(SELECTEDVALUE('Current'[current.air_quality.COLUMN_NAME]),0)
RETURN
SWITCH(
TRUE(),
AQI <= 50, "Air is clean and healthy",
AQI <= 100, "Acceptable air quality, stay active",
AQI <= 150, "Sensitive groups should reduce outdoor time",
AQI <= 200, "Limit prolonged outdoor exertion",
AQI <= 300, "Avoid outdoor activity if possible",
"Stay indoors, wear a mask if outside"
)

🎨 Generic Template for AQI Status:

AQI Status TEMPLATE =
VAR AQI = ROUND(SELECTEDVALUE('Current'[current.air_quality.COLUMN_NAME]),0)
RETURN
SWITCH(
TRUE(),
AQI <= 50, "Good",
AQI <= 100, "Moderate",
AQI <= 150, "Unhealthy for Sensitive",
AQI <= 200, "Unhealthy",
AQI <= 300, "Very Unhealthy",
"Hazardous"
)

✅ Again, just replace COLUMN_NAME with the pollutant of interest.

💡 Quick Tip:
Keep these generic DAX measures as templates — so when you want to add AQI visualizations for new pollutants like so2, no2, or o3, you only need to copy-paste and tweak one column name.

🎉 Conclusion

By integrating WeatherAPI into Power BI, you can create a dynamic weather dashboard with live data, then enrich it with custom AQI visualizations — all in a few easy steps. With these reusable DAX measures, your dashboard stays scalable, maintainable, and easy to enhance as your requirements grow.

Happy dashboarding! 🎨