I check the weather forecast religiously, and desktop weather apps for Linux like the ones featured in this post, help me do it quickly and without much effort.
If you want to know what the local weather conditions are now or peer into what’s planned for next week, you can do it without having to open a web browser or pull out your phone.
With unpredictable (and often historic) weather patterns sweeping across Europe, the UK and the USA in recent years, chances are you’ll want to check the weather more than usual.
Below are my picks of best weather apps and extensions for Ubuntu, Linux Mint and other Linux distros.
Best Linux Weather Apps
The following roundup of Linux weather apps also includes extensions for GNOME Shell and Linux Mint’s Cinnamon desktop. All of the tools spotlighted do the main ask: keep you up-to-date with current weather conditions and temperature.
Some apps offer more detailed weather data, such as wind speed, humidity and the chance of rain, and provide forecasts for up to 16 days in advance.
1: GNOME Weather (desktop app)
- Backend: libgweather
- Forecast Length: 9-day
- Hourly conditions: Yes
- Location Search: Yes
- Auto-location: Yes
GNOME Weather is plain but straightforward, looking more like a widget than a stat-packed meteorological dashboard (see Mousam, my bonus pick below, for that). It’s very empty looking; I don’t feel like it makes the best use of its available space.
That said, reliability is what counts. On that front, GNOME Weather delivers. If installed on GNOME Shell it has an extra trick: it adds a weather forecast widget to the Notification/Messaging shade, so you never even have to open the app itself to check the weather.
GNOME Weather is a free, open source software. You can install it on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or later (as well as compatible distros like Linux Mint) directly from the repos, using App Center, Mint Software or similar, or run sudo apt install gnome-weather in a terminal.
2: Meteo (desktop app)
- Backend: OpenWeatherMap
- Forecast Length: 5-day
- Hourly conditions: Yes
- Location Search: Yes
- Auto-location: Yes
Meteo (and the Qt port, Kmeteo, by the same developer) is a no-frills desktop weather app for Linux. It’s basic in UI, but clearer because of it. It shows detail on temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction as well as sunrise and sunset times.
But the real reason you might want to use this app is because when installed it provides a system tray applet.
The applet lets you see the current condition and temperature in the GNOME top bar/panel. A click reveals a drop down packed with other stats, like wind speed and humidity, so don’t have to use the “app” bit of the app at all – which is neat.
The developer of Meteo maintains a PPA with packages for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, but you can also install it from Flathub or the Snap Store. A standalone Deb package is also provided for Debian and Linux Mint users.
If you use KDE Plasma as your desktop you may prefer to use the developer’s Qt port, Kmeteo instead. Same features, but a more integrated appearance – but you’ll need to build it from source, sadly.
3: OpenWeather (GNOME Shell extension)
- Backend: OpenWeatherMap
- Forecast Length: Up to 10 day
- Hourly conditions: Yes
- Location Search: Yes
- Auto-location: Yes
The OpenWeather extension for GNOME Shell isn’t strictly an app so much as an applet. But given its popularity and its usefulness — it does everything a weather app does — I don’t think a list of the best weather apps for Linux would be complete without it.
OpenWeather runs directly from the GNOME Shell top panel. It displays current conditions (via a symbolic icon, optional text description) and temperature of whatever location you choose.
Access to detailed weather information takes only a click. You can see cloudiness, humidity, wind speed, and pressure, as well as sunrise/set times.
A well stocked settings page allows you to choose where the applet appears in the top bar, how many days forecast the on-click modal shows (up to 10-day forecast), and you can even view the weather in multiple locations.
If you use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or later and you want a fuss-free way to stay on top of the latest weather information, OpenWeather is well worth an install.
4: Weather (Cinnamon applet)
- Backend: Open-Meteo (+13 alternatives)
- Forecast Length: Up to 16 day
- Hourly conditions: Yes
- Location Search: Yes
- Auto-location: Yes
Linux Mint users on Cinnamon desktop may prefer an applet rather than app. More discrete, but no less detailed.
The simply-named Weather applet by mockturtl is my standout pick (an adaption of the GNOME Shell extension at #3 in this list). It’s highly configurable, detailed and puts current conditions on the panel where you can see them at any time.
Over 13 weather services backends are available to choose from, though some require an API key to pope data to the applet. It’s location-aware, but if the auto-detected location is off you can dial in exact longitude and latitude coordinates.
To install the weather applet on the Cinnamon desktop you need to right-click on an empty part of the panel you want to add it to, click ‘Add applets to the panel…’ . Then, search for Weather in the applet install window that appears and, in the Manage tab, add it.
For those on Xfce, the xfce4-weather-plugin does the same job, with pressure, wind, dew point, UV index and even moon phase (which is appreciated).
5: curl wttr.in (CLI weather tool)
- Backend: WorldWeatherOnline
- Forecast Length: 3-day
- Hourly conditions: No
- Location Search: Yes
- Auto-location: Yes
You can check the weather from the terminal/command-line using a simple command:
curl http://wttr.in
Within a few seconds a big, brash weather chart will blink in to view. It conveys current conditions for the auto-detected location as well as a 3-day forecast.
The 3-day forecast divides weather conditions for morning, noon, evening and night, includes temperature high and lows, wind speed and expected rain fall (in mm). ASCII weather art relays the conditions, which is a nice touch.
Because wttr.in inserts your location based on your IP you may find it isn’t entirely accurate.
To check weather for a specific city, run the same command again but append a city name to the end.
For instance, entering curl wttr.in/paris fetches the forecast for Paris, France, while wttr.in/stockholm lists conditions for… Well, you get the idea!
A terrific command-line tool with a wide range of features. Explore the documentation to learn how to customise what is returned and how.
Bonus Pick: Mousam (desktop app)
- Backend: Open-Meteo
- Forecast Length: 7-day
- Hourly conditions: Yes
- Location Search: Yes
- Auto-location: No (add locations manually)
If the apps above feel a bit stingy with detail, Mousam goes the other way entirely.
Built with GTK4 and libadwaita, it lays out current conditions, an hourly breakdown and a week-ahead forecast in a ‘bento box’ style dashboard, along with wind speed and direction, UV index, air quality, humidity, dewpoint, sunrise and sunset times… The works.
You can save and switch between multiple locations, though there’s no auto-detection so you’ll need to add your exact location by hand.
If all you need to know is “will I need a jacket”, its a lot to take in. But, on the flip, the design is so glanceable – more than a nod to Apple Weather – if you’re the sort who wants to know all of it, Mousam is the most complete weather app going on Linux right now.
Mousam is available on the Snap Store and Flathub, both official packages. An unofficial PPA also has DEBs for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, though it’s worth knowing the Snap often fails to load data, which is why I’ve made this a bonus suggestion only.
Throwback: Cumulus/Stormcloud
I couldn’t compile a list like this without giving a shout out to Cumulus.
Cumulus was — yes, past tense — a beautiful desktop weather application for the Linux desktop, modelled after an even older app called Stormcloud.
A colourful, to the point design made it incredibly easy to see what the weather was doing now, and how conditions might change over the next 5 days.
Cumulus was powered by Yahoo! Weather so when Yahoo! shut down access to their weather API, the app stopped working. It’d be great to see the developers behind the app hook it up to an alternative service (like OpenWeatherMap) as it really was a great little tool.
Update: Typhoon is a revived continuation of Cumulus/Stormcloud, rebuilt in Qt6. It adds extra features like chameleonic background colouring, temperature badge on the Ubuntu Dock and multiple locations. If you like the look of it, it’s available on the Snap Store.
Next time you need to check the weather, skip Google and give one of these well-weathered Linux weather apps a try!
OpenWeather screenshot: Fedora Magazine