Seeing the whole world from the comfort of your own home may seem impossible, but only if you haven’t heard of it. Google earth. Not only is it perfect for getting a glimpse of the whole world, it also makes sense for weather radar updates.
Look, you’re not going to replace your current weather app with Google Earth, because that’s not an efficient way to regularly check the weather. But if you’re using the tool for other purposes, it would be nice to be able to check if it’s going to rain.
View live weather forecast on Google Earth
It should be noted that Google removed the weather forecast from Earth a few years ago, so that as it stands, the service can only provide access to weather radar.
Where can I find the weather layer?
Before we begin, we must first locate the weather layer. Now, this functionality is integrated directly into Google Earth, so there is no need to make any significant changes or install any third-party software at this time. Just make sure you have Google Earth Pro installed on your computer. Open it, then go to the sidebar on the left.
In the sidebar, there is a tab called Layers, and below you should see the weather layer. From there, users can select the Cloud section to find out where the clouds are calculated in the world. As for the Information section, it will provide data on the weather and how it was collected.
For those who wish, they can also download weather animations, but make sure your computer is of relatively good power. Also, the option is there to have 24 hour cloud animations which is not bad if you ask us.
Keep in mind that cloud data isn’t real-time, it’s close.
Google Earth for the web
Users can choose to use Google Earth from their web browser instead of downloading the Desktop Pro version. From what we can tell, it also doesn’t have the weather forecast feature, but when it comes to looking at the clouds it is a possibility, thankfully.
To watch the clouds, run Google Earth for the web in the Chrome web browser. After that click on the menu icon and then select Card style. Look for the named button Enable animated clouds and turn it on. You won’t get live weather this way, but it’s better than nothing.
What are your options?
You see, we may use third party KMZ or KML files to provide forecasts.
Go to radar.weather.gov and be sure to enter your location in the forecast search box. Once you’ve selected your location, you should now proceed to the forecast page. From there click on the KML button to download the file.
After downloading the file to your desktop, Google Earth will load it and provide a weather forecast. Because weather services keep KML files up to date, you’ll always be on track with the latest forecast.
It should be noted that KML files not only display the weather, but also other climate related information that may or may not be of interest to you.
Other options outside of the Google Earth weather layer
For the casual user, it might not be a good idea to dig deep into adding KML files, so it would make more sense to use alternative services that also have weather radar options.
- Accuweather
- Windy
- Weather Underground
These are great options to choose from, so if you have little reason to use Google Earth, at least one of the alternatives above should help.
