🌤️ NordicWeather

A modern, visually engaging Flutter app that displays accurate current weather and a precise 5-day forecast with dynamic animations and styling.

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🚀 Status: Core Functionality Complete

Core weather fetching, processing, and primary UI are implemented. Current focus: polish, error handling, and secondary features. Track progress on the Project Board.

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🔥 Highlights

• Dynamic Lottie animations and adaptive background gradients based on weather and time-of-day.
• Accurate 5-day forecast (selects the item closest to 12:00 PM each day for a relevant daily summary).
• Clean separation of concerns: WeatherModel, ForecastModel, and WeatherService.
• Full OpenWeatherMap API integration and robust service-layer logic.
• Modern, responsive UI built with Flutter.

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✅ Implemented

• Dynamic Lottie animations that change with weather conditions.
• Adaptive UI gradients for immersive UX.
• 5-day forecast using the midday-sampling heuristic (closest to 12:00 PM).
• Decoupled data models (WeatherModel, ForecastModel).
• WeatherService handling API calls and forecast filtering.

🚧 In Progress

• Location detection and permission handling - see issue #5.

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🎬 Demo

Screenshots and live demo GIFs will be added as the project evolves!

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Flutter (Dart)
• OpenWeatherMap REST API
• Lottie for animations
• weather_icons package
• Material Design

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🚀 Quick Start

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/hasithamanage/NordicWeather.git

# 2. Navigate to the project directory
cd NordicWeather

# 3. Get packages
flutter pub get

# 4. (Required) Create a .env file and add your API key:
# API_KEY=YOUR_OPENWEATHERMAP_API_KEY_HERE

# 5. Run the application
flutter run

⚠️ API Key Security:
Keep your API key private. Do not share or commit your .env file to a public repository.

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📂 Project Structure

lib/
├── main.dart
├── screens/
│   └── home_screen.dart        # Main application UI and logic
├── widgets/
├── services/
│   └── weather_service.dart    # API calls and forecast filtering logic
└── models/
    ├── forecast_model.dart     # Daily forecast data structure
    └── weather_model.dart      # Current weather data structure

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💡 How forecasting works (short)

OpenWeatherMap provides 3-hourly forecast entries; the app selects, for each day, the forecast entry whose timestamp is closest to 12:00 PM local time to create a meaningful daily summary.

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❗ Troubleshooting & Known issues

• If the app shows empty forecast data, confirm your API key is valid and not rate-limited.
• Location-based features require platform permissions (AndroidManifest / Info.plist). See issue #5 for progress.
• If animations fail to load, ensure Lottie assets are present and referenced correctly.

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🛡️ Security & API keys

• Keep your OpenWeatherMap API key private. Add .env to .gitignore.
• Consider using a secrets manager or server-side proxy if you plan to publish a production app to avoid exposing API keys.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Check existing issues before opening a new one.
2. For major changes, open an issue or discussion first.
3. Follow repository conventions (formatting, tests).
4. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

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📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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📬 Contact / Support

• Open an issue
• Project board: NordicWeather Development Roadmap
• GitHub: https://github.com/hasithamanage