Aura

Every weather condition gets its own Canvas-based particle system. Rain drops fall, snow drifts, fog rolls in, clouds move, lightning flashes. Getting these to look natural AND run at 60fps was the main challenge.

• •Canvas-based particle rendering for rain, snow, fog, clouds, and lightning
• •Grain overlay effect for that premium film-like quality
• •AtmosphericCanvas composites all active effects based on current conditions
• •Lightning frequency control with randomized bolt patterns and screen flash

The app describes weather like a person, not a machine. Poetic mode gets you "The air is brittle and thirsty." Dry mode gives you "Monday. Again." Getting the tone right without being cringe took way more iterations than the actual code.

• •Three personality modes: Poetic, Dry, and Minimal
• •Context-aware descriptions for wind, humidity, pressure, UV, dew point, visibility, and air quality
• •Special date descriptions for Mondays, Fridays, equinoxes, and solstices
• •Wardrobe advice based on feels-like temperature, wind speed, and precipitation chance
• •Date-seeded randomization so descriptions don't change on every refresh

Open-Meteo for weather data (free, no API key needed), plus their separate air quality API. Both fetched concurrently and merged. The response mapping from WMO weather codes to my internal condition model took a while to get right.

• •Open-Meteo API integration with no authentication required
• •Concurrent fetching of weather + air quality data with async/await
• •WMO weather code mapping to internal WeatherCondition enum
• •Soil temperature, soil moisture, and solar radiation from hourly data
• •CacheService for offline fallback when the API is unreachable

Context-aware haptics tied to weather conditions and user interactions. Rain feels different from thunder feels different from tapping a card. Built a whole WeatherHapticEngine for the weather-specific patterns.

• •HapticManager for general UI interactions (tap, toggle, scroll)
• •WeatherHapticEngine for condition-specific vibration patterns
• •Per-category toggles and intensity controls in settings
• •Global haptic toggle for users who just want silence

WidgetKit extension that shows weather with personality text on your home screen. The timeline provider refreshes data and the view adapts to widget size. Sharing data between the app and widget via App Groups was surprisingly finicky.

• •WidgetKit with WeatherWidgetProvider for timeline updates
• •Personality text displayed directly on the widget
• •App Group shared container for data synchronization
• •Custom widget view matching the app's atmospheric design language

The whole visual identity is built around weather. AtmosphericPalette shifts gradients and colors based on condition and time of day. Custom typography with AuraTypography. Constants file for spacing and sizing. Everything is consistent and themed.

• •AtmosphericPalette with condition-based gradient and color generation
• •Time-of-day awareness: sunrise, daytime, sunset, and night all look different
• •AuraTypography for consistent font sizing across the app
• •AuraConstants for standardized spacing, padding, and corner radii
• •Detail cards (Wind, UV, Sun Arc, Moon Phase) with consistent visual treatment

Preview any weather condition at any time of day without waiting for actual weather. Useful for testing, but honestly I just use it to stare at the snow effect. Built it so all the visual effects, palette, and data respond correctly to simulated state.

• •Condition picker for Clear, Overcast, Rain, Snow, Stormy, Fog, Night
• •Time-of-day slider from 0-24 hours
• •Full WeatherState generation with realistic mock data for simulated conditions
• •Settings integration with SimulationControlsView