A beautiful, real-time animated weather desklet for Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop. Features live particle effects (rain, snow, hail, drifting clouds, twinkling stars, lightning), glassmorphism UI, rounded corners, daily & hourly forecast, auto-detection of your location, and full Russian language support. Now with dual weather API providers — switch between MET Norway (yr.no) and Open-Meteo.
- Live animated weather — rain drops, snowflakes, hail stones, drifting clouds, twinkling stars, lightning flashes, rainbow
- Rounded corners — 24px radius with Cairo clipping for a modern glass-morph look
- Dual weather providers — MET Norway (yr.no) works in regions where Open-Meteo is blocked; Open-Meteo automatically falls back to MET Norway on network/API failures
- Ambient light integration — snow, rain, and hail particles pick up sky tones for natural scene blending
- Daily forecast (3–5 days) — day name, weather icon, hi/lo temperatures
- Hourly forecast — 6/12/24 hour forecast strip, 8 slots (switchable via settings)
- Transparent background mode — toggle off the sky gradient and glass panel for a clean, floating look. Unlike other desklets, no visible container borders or backgrounds
- Glassmorphism UI — frosted glass panel with adaptive transparency
- Sky gradient — dynamic sky colours that adapt to weather condition and time of day
- Auto location — detects your city via IP geolocation (or set manually)
- Real-time data — powered by MET Norway (yr.no) or Open-Meteo with automatic MET Norway fallback (free, no API key required)
- 6 colour themes — Auto, Glass, Dark, Warm, Cool, Nature
- Configurable — units, theme, opacity, background toggle, width, refresh interval, forecast mode, weather provider
- 🌐 Russian language — interface and settings available in Русский
- Lightweight — ~30fps Cairo-rendered, no GPU needed
- No API key required — both MET Norway (yr.no) and Open-Meteo are free, no registration needed
- Linux Mint 20+ (or any Cinnamon desktop ≥ 4.6)
- Internet connection (for weather data)
Choose any method:
# 🥇 Recommended — Makefile (clone once, keeps git for easy updates)
git clone https://github.com/Zulus-Code/cinnamon-animated-weather-desklet.git
cd cinnamon-animated-weather-desklet
make install
# 🥈 Alternative — install.sh (same git + local copy)
./install.sh
# 🚀 One-liner (no clone, no git — just works)
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Zulus-Code/\
cinnamon-animated-weather-desklet/master/install.sh | bashAfter any method → restart Cinnamon: Ctrl+Alt+Esc
- Right-click on desktop → Add Desklet
- Find Анимированная погода (or Animated Weather) → click Add
- Right-click the desklet → Configure
- Choose your city (or leave
auto) - Select Language → Русский (optional)
That's it — no API key needed. Works out of the box.
# From the repo directory (if you cloned it)
make uninstall
# Or using install.sh
./install.sh --uninstallcd ~/.local/share/cinnamon/desklets/weather-animated@zulus/
git pull
make reinstall # or: ./install.sh
Ctrl+Alt+EscThe desklet supports English and Russian interface languages.
For the Cairo-rendered UI (temperatures, labels, errors): Switch language in desklet settings: Configure → Language → Русский
For the settings dialog (descriptions, tooltips): Install gettext and compile the translations:
sudo apt install gettext
msgfmt ~/.local/share/cinnamon/desklets/weather-animated@zulus/po/ru.po \
-o ~/.local/share/locale/ru/LC_MESSAGES/weather-animated@zulus.mo
Ctrl+Alt+EscWhen switching to Russian:
- Wind unit changes from
km/htoм/с - Pressure unit changes from
hPatoгПа - All labels, errors, and loading messages are translated
- Settings dialog descriptions and tooltips are translated (with
msgfmt)
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Location | auto |
City name, lat,lon coordinates, or auto for IP geolocation |
| Provider | MET Norway | Weather source: MET Norway (yr.no) or Open-Meteo |
| Units | Celsius | °C or °F |
| Language | English | Interface language (English / Русский) |
| Refresh | 10 min | How often to fetch weather data |
| Theme | Auto | Auto, Glass, Dark, Warm, Cool, Nature |
| Forecast | ✅ On | Show forecast strip |
| Forecast mode | Daily | Daily (3–5 days) or Hourly (up to 24h) |
| Forecast hours | 6 h | Hourly forecast range (3–24 h) |
| Background | ✅ On | Show sky gradient and glass panel (off = transparent, particles only) |
| Humidity | ✅ On | Show humidity |
| Wind | ✅ On | Show wind speed |
| Pressure | ✅ On | Show atmospheric pressure |
| Opacity | 70% | Panel transparency |
| Width | 350 px | Desklet width |
| Condition | Effects |
|---|---|
| ☀️ Clear (day) | Warm golden glow, subtle sparkles |
| 🌙 Clear (night) | Deep blue sky, twinkling stars with cross flares |
| ☁️ Cloudy | Grey-white gradient, drifting cloud clusters |
| 🌧️ Rain | Dynamic rain streaks, steel-blue sky |
| ⛈️ Thunderstorm | Heavy rain, dark turbulent sky, lightning flashes |
| 🧊 Hail | Icy ball particles with white highlights (WMO 96/99) |
| 🌈 Rainbow | Arc in lower-left when sun is low + light rain |
| ❄️ Snow | White gradient, falling snowflakes with drift |
| 🌫️ Fog/Mist | Soft grey gradient, fog wisps |
The desklet is split into logical modules for maintainability:
weather-animated@zulus/
├── desklet.js # Main class — wires modules together, settings, lifecycle
├── constants.js # Colors, WMO weather codes, i18n strings, emoji map
├── weatherService.js # MET Norway/Open-Meteo API, geocoding, forecast builder (daily + hourly)
├── renderer.js # Cairo/PangoCairo rendering — sky, glass panel, text, forecast, particles
├── particleSystem.js # Particle physics — rain, snow, hail, clouds, stars
├── sceneBuilder.js # Procedural sky builder — Perlin noise, fBm, cloud/fog/lighting
├── utils.js # Helpers — text width, local date parsing, day names
├── settings-schema.json # Settings UI definition
├── metadata.json # Desklet metadata
├── stylesheet.css # Container styles
├── eslint.config.mjs # ESLint flat config (GJS/Cinnamon)
├── install.sh # Legacy installer
├── tests/ # 119 unit tests for core logic
│ ├── run.js
│ ├── utils.test.js
│ ├── constants.test.js
│ ├── sceneBuilder.test.js
│ ├── renderer.test.js
│ └── weatherService.test.js
├── po/
│ ├── weather-animated@zulus.pot
│ └── ru.po
├── README.md
└── LICENSE
| Module | Lines | Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
desklet.js |
~315 | Desklet class, settings binding, lifecycle, animation loop, container transparency |
constants.js |
~128 | Sky/palette colors, WMO→description dict (en/ru), emoji mapping, i18n strings |
weatherService.js |
~676 | Open-Meteo + MET Norway API, geocoding (Open-Meteo + ip-api.com), Open-Meteo→MET fallback, altitude-aware MET requests, WMO→OWM ID mapping, symbol→WMO mapping, daily/hourly forecast builder |
renderer.js |
~1030 | All drawing: sky gradient, glass panel, current weather UI, daily/hourly forecast, loading/error states |
particleSystem.js |
~520 | Particle classes, physics update, per-condition particle spawning (rain, snow, hail, clouds, stars) |
sceneBuilder.js |
~750 | Scene generation from weather codes, Perlin noise/fBm textures for clouds & fog, sky colour interpolation |
utils.js |
~65 | _pangoWidth(), _parseLocalDate(), _getMinutes(), _dayName(), _hexToRgba(), wmoToOwmId() |
- ESLint — flat config for GJS, all JS files 0 errors, 0 warnings
- JSDoc — full
@param/@returnsannotations on all functions/methods across all modules - Tests — 122 unit tests for utils, constants, sceneBuilder, renderer, weatherService (run with
node tests/run.js)
- Class-based ES6 JavaScript (Cinnamon/GJS compatible)
- Cairo + PangoCairo rendering — all UI drawn via Cairo on
St.DrawingArea, text through PangoCairo for emoji support - Particle system — lightweight physics for rain/snow/hail/clouds/stars in a dedicated module
- Procedural scene — Perlin noise / fBm textures for realistic clouds and fog layers
- HTTP — libsoup2 (queue_message) / libsoup3 (send_and_read_async) / blocking curl fallback, encapsulated in
weatherService.js - i18n — custom
STRINGSdict +_(key)helper inconstants.js; Gettext.pofiles for settings dialog - Weather API — MET Norway (default) and Open-Meteo. Both are free, no API key. If Open-Meteo forecast is unreachable, the desklet automatically falls back to MET Norway. Uses WMO weather codes mapped to OWM-compatible IDs for rendering compatibility. Provider switchable in desklet settings
- Geocoding — Open-Meteo Geocoding API for city search, ip-api.com for auto-location. Manual
lat,loninput is used directly; city search requests multiple candidates and uses returned elevation for altitude-aware MET Norway forecasts - No dependencies — pure JavaScript, no Node.js, no WebKit
GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE.
Made by @Zulus-code • Version 2.3.0 — see CHANGELOG for release history.