Most extensions for GNOME Shell can be installed quite simply. Head over to the GNOME Shell Extensions website, find what you want, and click the On/Off toggle switch. You'll be asked to confirm installation, and within seconds the extension will be installed and running. It's really that simple.
Unfortunately, the GNOME Shell Weather Extension isn't quite so simple. To use it, you need to either compile it (from instructions here), or else use the PPA set up by the administrators of the Webupd8 website. For our examples, we'll show the latter (which still involves a bit more than simply adding the PPA and installing). In the end, we think the extra time is worth it. Ever since installing GNOME Shell, being able to view weather information in the panel was something we'd been missing. No more.
The first step is to open up your Terminal.
Now, type sudo apt-add-repository ppa://webupd8team/gnome3 to add the PPA to your list of software sources.
Doing this will not only make the GNOME Shell Weather Extension available, but everything else in the PPA (including updated versions of some software you might already have installed on your system). Once you've added the PPA, type sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade in order to first update your software lists, then upgrade your installed software. This will ensure you are running the most up-to-date versions available and should lessen the risk of conflicts.
Now, type sudo apt-get install gnome-shell-extensions-weather to install the GNOME Shell Weather Extension.
Once this is done you'll need to restart your GNOME Shell session. You can do this by logging out and then logging back in. Once you've done this, open up GNOME Tweak Tool and make sure the Weather extension is turned on.
Note: if you don't have GNOME Tweak Tool turned on already, typing sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool will do the trick, no extra PPAs necessary.
You should now see a new icon in your Panel.
It needs a little bit of tweaking, however (unless you like the weather info in the middle of your panel and are currently living in Innsbruck). So click the weather icon, then click the little gears icon that is in the upper-right corner of the weather info. The Weather Configurator window should appear.
The first thing we need to change is the WOEID. WOEID stands for Where On Earth IDentifier), and is used to differentiate between different locations all over the world. For instance, the WOEID for Eldora, Iowa, zip code 50627, is 12780093. However, for the weather extension, we need Yahoo's WOEID, as used in their RSS feeds. So head over to Yahoo Weather and search for your zip code.
Once you've selected your city, click to view the RSS feed (found on the right side of the page).
Now, look in your URL bar. We've highlighted the correct set of numbers/letters for our location. Your code will look similar and be in the same place.
Now simply plug that bit of text into the Weather Configurator, and make any other changs you want, such as choosing what info is shown in the panel, where in the panel the weather extension is placed, and more. You'll likely need to logout and login again, but when you're finished, you'll see the correct weather info for your city in the panel, with more detailed info when you click the icon.
As stated earlier, this extension isn't nearly as easy to use as others, or even as this one could be. Having the ability (as other weather extensions did in older versions of GNOME), to look up the correct code from within the extension, would be great. Still, at the moment this is the only game in town (there are no other weather extensions for GNOME Shell), and it's not too much of a hassle to install and get up and running. And when it's finally configured, it's incredibly useful.
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