Weather arrives on Google Maps

Stephen Withers
Monday, 22 August 2011 09:13

Your IT - Home IT

Google has added a weather layer to Google Maps, making it quick and easy to check weather conditions at your location or destination.

There are many different routes to weather information on your computer, and the list now includes Google Maps. A new layer available on Google Maps displays weather reports and forecasts, but you shouldn't put too much trust in the most local information it delivers.



The conditions are initially shown by an icon (eg, a sun partly obscured by cloud) and a temperature. Hovering over the icon gives a text description such as "partly cloudy", and clicking on it displays a more detailed (though still terse) weather report and forecast.

Like other categories of information, the weather layer can be selected from the fly-out menu near the top right corner of the map. Zoomed right out, the map shows a scattering of major cities which seem to have been chosen for an even geographical spread rather than their significance. For example, the only US city shown is Honolulu - Calgary and Mexico City represent North American conditions.

As you zoom in, more cities appear, but the same rule seems to hold - Perth is the second Australian city to appear after Sydney, and Rockhampton appears before Brisbane, and Hobart before Melbourne.

Zooming in on major cities reveals weather icons for various locations within the metropolitan area, but it may be necessary to take the information with a pinch of salt. For example, at the time of writing the icon for Melbourne Airport reported 7 degrees, the pop-out showed 8 degrees, and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) reported 9 degrees.

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