Weather without a precise-location prompt
See useful weather on your Chrome new tab
Mist — Minimal New Tab can show current conditions beside the date. Choose a city or postal code, allow an approximate IP lookup, or leave weather switched off.
The problem
Weather is useful only when its location choice is clear
A weather widget needs coordinates somehow. Precise browser geolocation is rarely necessary for a glance at daily conditions, but vague “local weather” copy can hide how the location was obtained.
The right setup balances accuracy with a location method you understand and lets you turn the request off entirely.
Direct answer
Mist offers entered or approximate location
Enter a city or postal code and Mist uses Open-Meteo Geocoding to find coordinates, then Open-Meteo Weather for current conditions. This avoids an automatic IP-location request.
If you choose Automatic, GeoJS is used for an approximate city and ipapi is a fallback. Mist does not request Chrome’s precise geolocation permission. The relevant host access is optional and requested after you enable the feature.
Why it helps
Benefits tied to this use case
A quick daily check
Temperature and conditions appear beside the date without opening a forecast site.
Location choice
Prefer a city you enter, an approximate automatic lookup or no weather at all.
Cached resilience
Recent weather can be reused briefly, with an older cached value available as an offline fallback.
How it works
Build the page in deliberate steps
- 01
Open General settings
Weather is controlled separately from the clock, search and shortcuts.
- 02
Read the disclosure
Before the first automatic request, Mist explains the optional external services.
- 03
Enter a place or choose Automatic
A manual city limits the request to Open-Meteo; Automatic also needs approximate-IP providers.
- 04
Disable when no longer useful
Turning weather off clears cached location and weather data used by the feature.
Concrete situations
Where this setup earns its place
Commute planning
See whether conditions changed before opening a detailed forecast.
A city different from your network location
Enter the place you care about instead of relying on IP-derived location.
Travel or shared networks
Update the city manually when an approximate IP location would be misleading.
Available in Mist now
Features relevant to this page
- Current conditions
- Mist shows temperature, a condition description, wind, humidity and the selected location when available.
- Celsius or Fahrenheit
- Choose the temperature unit independently from the location method.
- Short-term cache
- Weather is treated as current for 30 minutes and can be reused as an offline fallback for up to 12 hours.
- No precise geolocation
- Mist never requests the browser permission that exposes precise device coordinates.
Limitations and trade-offs
External providers still see a request
Open-Meteo, GeoJS or ipapi receive normal connection information when your browser contacts them. Mist does not store your IP address, but that does not make the third-party request invisible.
Weather is a glanceable current-conditions display, not an emergency or safety forecast. Use an authoritative local service when decisions depend on warnings or precise timing.
An honest comparison
A new-tab glance versus a full forecast
A compact widget answers “what is it like now?” with less friction. A dedicated weather service is better for hourly rain, alerts, radar and multi-day planning.
Mist intentionally keeps the widget small. If weather is not part of your daily browsing decision, disabling it produces a simpler page and fewer network requests.
Specific answers
Questions people ask before choosing
Does Mist use precise GPS or browser geolocation?
No. It uses a city/postal code you enter or an approximate IP-based city after you choose Automatic.
Which weather provider does Mist use?
Current conditions come from Open-Meteo. Manual location uses Open-Meteo Geocoding; automatic location uses GeoJS with ipapi as a fallback.
Can I hide weather completely?
Yes. Weather can be declined at first use or disabled later in General settings.
Does disabling weather remove its cache?
Yes. Mist removes cached weather and automatic-location data when the feature is disabled.