The White House Live Cam, Washington D.C.

The White House live cam looks south across Lafayette Square at the north front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States. The camera looks down from a rooftop just north of Lafayette Square, about 350 meters (1,150 feet) out, and holds the North Portico head on with the North Lawn fountain below it and the flag on its pole alongside. The trees of the square fill the foreground, beyond them the block of Pennsylvania Avenue shut to traffic since 1995.

What the White House Live Cam Shows

This is the north side of the building and only the north side. The South Lawn, where Marine One lands, sits behind the house and never enters the shot, the point most people get wrong before they open the stream. The East Wing came down in October 2025 for the State Ballroom project, and that work is on the east side of the house rather than the face the camera holds.

The camera pans and zooms rather than sitting still, so the framing changes between visits. Tight, it fills the shot with the portico, the columns and the fountain in its ring of red planting. Wide, it pulls in the Washington Monument and the lit dome of the Jefferson Memorial behind the house. The tall flagpole on the lawn is one of a pair raised in June 2025, each 27 meters (88 feet).

About the White House

Construction began on October 13, 1792 to a design by James Hoban, an Irish-born architect, and finished on November 1, 1800, the day John Adams moved in. The walls are Aquia Creek sandstone, whitewashed, which is where the name settled. British forces burned the building on August 24, 1814.

Six floors hold 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms across about 5,100 square meters (55,000 square feet), on grounds of just over 18 acres (7.3 hectares). The portico on camera is the newer of the two, added in 1829 against 1824 for the South Portico. Lafayette Square in the foreground covers seven acres (28,327 square meters), centered on Clark Mills’s equestrian Andrew Jackson of 1853.

Weather and Climate in Washington D.C.

Washington sits in a humid subtropical belt. Reanalysis figures across 2016 to 2025 put July highs at 31.3 C (88 F) against lows of 21.5 C (71 F), with 189 millimeters of rain in the month, the wettest of the year. Summer afternoons haze over and the Washington Monument fades to a gray outline.

January reverses it: highs of 6.1 C (43 F), lows of minus 2.2 C (28 F), and about 15 centimeters (6 inches) of the 32 centimeters (13 inches) of snow the city sees in a year. Snow on the North Lawn rarely lasts a full day. April runs mild at 19.1 C (66 F), when the cherry trees peak at the Tidal Basin.

Things to Do Near the White House

The White House Visitor Center at 1450 Pennsylvania Avenue NW needs no booking. The house itself does: a tour has to be requested through a Member of Congress, weeks ahead, and every name is cleared first. St John’s Episcopal Church at 16th and H Streets, built in 1816 to Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s design, has kept a pew for every president since James Madison.

Decatur House on the square dates from 1818, and the Renwick Gallery a block west shows American craft. The Washington Monument stands 169 meters (555 feet), about 900 meters (0.6 miles) south of the North Lawn.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

Three more to open after this one.

• U.S. Capitol Webcam
• Times Square Webcam
• Philadelphia Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

What can you see on the White House Webcam?

The north front and its portico, the North Lawn fountain, the flagpole and the trees of Lafayette Square in front. Pulled wide, the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial dome appear behind the house.

Can you see the South Lawn on the White House live cam?

No. The camera sits north of the house and the building blocks its own South Lawn, so the Rose Garden, the South Portico and the landing pad stay hidden.

Why is the White House webcam offline?

The feed comes from earthTV, which restarts its broadcast under a new video address every few months. Any page still holding the old one goes dark until it is repointed, so the camera can look switched off while it is running normally.

Can you see the East Wing ballroom construction?

Demolition of the East Wing began on October 20, 2025 to make room for the State Ballroom, due to open in 2028. The site is on the east side of the house, off the north face this camera holds.

Is the White House live cam on at night?

The stream runs around the clock. After dark the facade is floodlit and stays clearly visible, and the Washington Monument keeps its red aircraft lights.

Can you see the President or Marine One?

Motorcades use the driveway under the North Portico, in frame, but at this range faces are not resolvable. Marine One lands on the South Lawn, out of view, and shows only if it climbs above the roofline.

Does the White House webcam have sound?

There is an audio track on the stream, but it carries almost no signal and no commentary, so in practice there is nothing to hear. Treat this as a picture only camera.

What is the weather at the White House right now?

The panel above the player reads live for Washington, D.C.: temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit, cloud cover, humidity, wind, sunrise and sunset. Rain, snow and summer haze show on camera too.

Source: earthTV