Information Madness

Now you can check out the weather in Google Earth. The latest version projects images of rain and snow over the areas with those weather patterns as it’s actually happening! First enable the clouds layer, then zoom in to a particular location where it might be raining or snowing. Currently, precipitation data cover some areas in North America and Europe; you can see if it’s available in certain places by enabling the radar layer.

Google Earth is a great way to travel around the world from the comfort of your armchair and now it’s got a new feature that makes it even more immersive, real-time weather. If it’s raining or snowing in the location you’re currently visiting, the weather is depicted in Google Earth as well. It has some practicability, but there are probably better ways to get a weather report than to use Earth. None of them are as much fun though.

According to Quarup Barreirinhas, Software Engineer at Google, "This is a fun and useful tool for anyone planning to travel or who wants to check a specific area where a friend of relative might be visiting or living. For example, in preparation for my recent trip to the American southwest, I decided to check on the status of Hurricane Alex a few days in advance. Via Google Earth, I could see that the hurricane was entering Mexico and Texas. Zooming close to ground, I saw that the Texas coastline was getting a bit of rain".

Direct Download Links for Google Earth 5.2:

Google Earth (For Windows, 13.2 MB)

Google Earth (For Linux, 29.9 MB)

Google Earth (For MAC OSX, 62.7 MB)