August 2, 2010
Google Earth Adds Real-Time Weather
Google Earth has been sort of 3D for a little while now, with accurate topography and elevation, etc. But now the engineers over at Google have come up with the next level of Google Earth awesomeness: now, users who have the application can check on rain and snow in real-time, and they can also see what the conditions actually look like.
This isn’t your average weatherman green-screen that just shows little clip art graphics of rain, snow, and clouds. This is high-tech. To see the conditions, users will enable a “cloud layer” on the map, which shows you exactly what the clouds look like in a given area. Then the user can zoom in and see the rain and snow levels in that particular spot.
As of right now, this feature is only available in certain parts of North America and Europe, but I’m sure that Google is working hard to make sure this is a global feature. But, to make it simple for North American and European residents, there is a radar layer that shows precisely where one can view the rainy and snowy weather patterns.
The best part about this is that the Google Earth feature doesn’t just show you common or average weather patterns for these areas: it shows you what is going on as you are looking at the map. If you are planning to travel, you can see just how much rain or snow you will have to deal with. You can visualize how many inches you and your car will be buried under and make your travel decisions accordingly. Sounds cool and convenient!
I’m looking forward to future developments of this application, whether they take it global or make technological improvements, or both!
(Photo courtesy of Google Lat Long Blog)
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Posted by Shaane at 7:00 am
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