One issue you might be running into is Alexa giving you the weather for the wrong location. In this guide, I will be going over all the reasons why this might be happening to your Alexa and ways to troubleshoot this issue yourself.
Why is Alexa Giving Me Weather for Wrong Location?
When you are getting the wrong weather forecast when you ask Alexa how the weather is can be annoying.
This should be an easy question for Alexa to answer correctly, and it can be an easy fix. There are some reasons why Alexa is giving you the weather forecast for the wrong location.
Have you moved recently? Is there another town in the world with the same name as the one you live in? Below will be the common reason why Alexa is giving you the weather forecast for the wrong location.
1. The Echo Device Location on My Alexa is Wrong
When you ask Alexa what the weather forecast is and you are given the forecast for the wrong location this can become annoying, even if it is just the town over. This could be because the location on your Alexa is not your current location.
This can be because either you have moved and your Alexa is still using the location from your previous home. Or it could be mistaking your town name for another town of the same name.
Since Alexa uses AccuWeather and sometimes there might be an issue with AccuWeather. With that in mind, the very first thing you should do is check your Alexa smart device’s location, you can do this by checking the settings in your Alexa app.
Note, this could also happen when you have bought your Echo device for another person, the Echo device location could be set to the previous owner’s location.
Fix – Change the Location on Your Alexa to Your Current Location
The first thing you need to do when Alexa is giving you the weather forecast in the wrong location is to check your Alexa’s location and change the location if need be. Follow these steps to change the Location on your Alexa.
- Download the Alexa app to your smartphone.
- Once the Alexa app is downloaded, sign into the app with your account information.
- When in the Alexa app go into the app’s settings.
- Tap on “Your Locations”
- Make sure your “Home” is the correct location
2. Alexa’s Echo Device is Set to Wrong Location
One thing to keep in mind is that all the Echo devices in your home have their own location set up.
This can be the cause of why your Alexa is giving you the weather forecast for the wrong location. Even if one Echo Device is set to the wrong location it can give you the wrong forecast.
Thankfully there is a way you can set and change the location of each Echo device in your home. This can be time-consuming if you have multiple Echo devices in your home but the setup is pretty easy.
Fix – Change the Location on Every Echo Device in Your Home
Yes, you will have to change the location on all the Echo devices you have in your household, on top of changing the location on your Alexa app.
When your Echo device is set to the wrong location this can give you a wrong weather forecast on your Alexa. Follow these steps to change the location on your Echo device.
- Go into your Alexa app on your smartphone.
- Click on the “Devices” in the bottom right corner.
- You will want to click on “Echo & Alexa”
- Go into your first Echo (this may be your only Echo device, but if you have more than one Echo device all of them will appear, you will have to change the location on every single one.)
- Once in your Echo device scroll down till you see “Device Location”, then tap on that.
- You will see the full address and zip code, check to see if this is correct. If not, change the location on your Echo device.
- When you have put in the correct location click on “Save” and that should now give you the correct weather forecast for your location.
3. Alexa is Using Previous Address
When you have changed the location on your Alexa app and have changed the location on all of your Echo devices you may still be noticing that you are getting severe weather alerts from the wrong location.
This could be because your severe weather alerts are still set to your previous address. Thankfully, fixing this issue is just as easy as changing the location on your Echo devices and Alexa app.
Once you have changed your severe weather alert location to your current location, this should start giving you alerts to your new location.
Fix – Delete and Change Location on Severe Weather Alerts
The best way to manage your Alexa and Echo devices is to download the Alexa app, this will give you full access to your Alexa and Echo device. When you have the Alexa app, deleting and changing the severe weather alert location are a few easy steps.
- Open the Alexa app on your smartphone.
- Tap on “More” in your Alexa app
- Tap on “Settings”
- When in the “Settings” you will go into the “Notifications”
- Once in the “Notification” scroll down until you see the “Weather” option, tap on that.
- You will see “Severe Weather Alerts”, delete the old location and set the location to the new one.
- You will want to walk up to your Echo device and say “Alexa, tell me when there is a severe weather alert.”
This will restart your severe weather location alerts on your Alexa, using your current location.
4. Default Weather Provider May Be Inaccurate
One thing to keep in mind is that when you have an Alexa, the default weather provider is AccuWeather.
Unfortunately, there is no way you can change the default weather provider on your Alexa. However, your Echo device does have “Skills”, one of the “Skills” is called “Big Sky” weather.
Big Sky Weather has a better rating than AccuWeather and the top rating of all the weather “Skills”. This is making some users use the Big Sky “Skills’ ‘ instead of the default weather provider on your Alexa.
Keep in mind that you will have to change how you ask Alexa about the weather. Instead of saying “Alexa, what is today’s weather forecast.” You will say “Alexa, open Big Sky.” Simply asking Alexa to open Big Sky will give you the forecast for the day.
AccuWeather is a good weather provider but it is not perfect, if you are still having trouble using AccuWeather you may want to enable the Big Sky “Skill”.
Fix – Use the Big Sky Skill on Your Alexa
When you are still getting inaccurate weather using the Alexa weather provider AccuWeather you can enable a “Skill” on your Alexa app that is called Big Sky.
Big Sky is a weather app that has a better rating than AccuWeather, making users want to use Big Sky instead. You will have to enable the Big Sky weather on your Alex app. Thankfully it is a few easy steps.
- Open your Alexa app
- Go to the Settings
- Tap on the “Skills & Games”
- Go to the search on the top right
- Search “Big”
- When you see “Big Sky” select it.
- Click “Enable Skill”
- Choose the permission you want to grant
- Tap on “Finish”
Note, when you want to get the weather forecast using the Big Sky weather “Skill” you will need to say “Alexa, open Big Sky” to get the weather. The Big Sky app has a list of questions that you can ask Alexa if you want to know more about the weather.
5. Alexa/Echo Device is Faulty
A thing to keep in mind is that issues and glitches can happen to any device, even your Alexa.
If you have changed your location on your Alexa app, on all your Echo devices, changed your severe weather alert location, and you are still having issues with getting the weather forecast from the wrong location.
This could be a glitch on Alexa’s part, or it could be the device itself.
Fix – Contact Support
When you have tried troubleshooting the issue yourself and still are having problems with Alexa giving you the weather forecast in the wrong location the best thing to do is contact support.
This could be an issue that the support team needs to fix or it could be a faulty Echo device.
If you have a warranty on it you can look into getting it replaced or you may have to purchase a new device. Contacting the support should be the first thing you do before replacing the device.