Mountain View, California — Musing over checking the weather and hoping for a novel method of doing so? Well, Google Earth is one of the most “impressive” applications in Google’s stable, which is meant to give its users a naturalistic view of the world through Google Earth — current weather conditions. The newly released upgrade will make it even more accurate, though, by showing users whether or not they would be getting wet if they were to visit certain parts of the globe.
Google Earth already delivers many excellent features for users around the world — The newest is the clouds layer support that comes by way of Google Earth 5.2 and is done so with the introduction of two new layers, which now shows rain and snow in real-time weather patterns, across the globe.
The new layers include the “cloud layer” and the “radar layer” and according to the Google Lat Long Blog. “The latest version projects images of rain and snow over the areas with those weather patterns as it is actually happening!”
If its showering or snowing in the location you are currently visiting, the weather is depicted in Google Earth as well. Yes, Google Earth 5.2 is now supposed to account for both rain and snow — totally “from light drizzle and snow to hurricanes and blizzards,” in fact — at least in some regions of North America and Europe.
“It is the middle of summer, but for those of us who wish for the return of cold winter weather and warm cups of cocoa, wear on your favorite poncho and check out the weather in Google Earth 5.2. The latest version depicts images of rain and snow over the areas with those weather patterns as it is actually occurring!,” Quarup Barreirinhas, Software Engineer at Google, announced.
Barreirinhas explained on the LatLong Blog, “First enable the clouds layer, then you can just zoom in to a particular location where it might be raining or snowing. I’m willing to bet London is a likely spot, even these days, or the Lone Star state (pictured below) which is in the midst of tropical storm season.” By enabling the radar layer, you can see where the precipitation data is available, he added.
It has some usefulness though, but there are probably better options available to get a weather report than to use Earth. Unfortunately, the weather data is only available for some parts of North America and Europe, so it is mostly hit or miss. If you want to check out if the data is available in one particular area, just enable the radar layer which will show you exactly where Google has weather info.
It has a fun new feature and should give users a much better sense of immediacy. As for how a person can take advantage of the new feature, it is not at all complicated.
The coolest thing about the new feature is that it is in real time, updated as it actually happens. Maybe only weather-forecaster will oppose to the development, since Google Earth is beginning to portray a pretty decent alternative to watching the local forecast.
Furthermore, travelers and people who appreciate the move, along with folks who just enjoy interesting graphics — are sure to admire this information.
Google Earth for Windows is available for download here.
Google Earth for Linux is available for download here.
Google Earth for Mac is available for download here.