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Google Earth Imagery Update: The Dallas, Texas Tornados

June 20, 2016

Google has recently pushed out another imagery update. Below we show approximate maps of where the new imagery from April, May and June can be found. There is almost certainly older imagery too, but it is harder to find.


June imagery.


May imagery. Red: Recently added imagery. Blue: Imagery as of June 12th.


April imagery. Red: Recently added imagery. Blue: Imagery as of June 12th.

To find the locations in Google Earth download this KML file.

As you can see above the new April imagery is almost exclusively aerial imagery, mostly of the US and a bit of Japan. Clearly aerial imagery takes a bit longer to process than satellite imagery. Strangely we have not yet seen any aerial imagery of Europe this year and very little satellite imagery.
[Correction: There are a few small patches of aerial imagery. ]

On December 26, 2015, there was an outbreak of at least 32 tornados, many of which were in the Dallas, Texas area. There is now some aerial imagery captured on April 28th, 2016, five months after the disaster. Nevertheless, the destruction is still very much in evidence, with the tornado scar over the Garland/Rowlett area visible from quite a high altitude. We have identified the tracks of the three strongest tornados.

We have in the past looked at low resolution imagery of the Garland/Rowlett area using both Landsat imagery and Sentinel imagery, but although we could clearly see the tornado scar, we could not see damage to individual houses.

Below are some ‘before and after’ comparisons. Drag the dividers left and right to compare the imagery.

before
after

 

before
after

 

before
after

 

before
after

 

before
after

 

before
after

 

The above are all from the Garland/Rowlett tornadowhich was the strongest, but we show only a tiny fraction of the damage caused. Be sure to check out the imagery in Google Earth with this KML file as a guide. There is quite a lot of new construction in the area so when looking for damage be sure to compare with historical imagery as a house under construction looks remarkably similar to a severely damaged house.

About Timothy Whitehead

Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Filed Under: Site News Tagged With: dallas, rowlett, tornado

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PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  1. ben reuter says

    June 20, 2016 at 11:39 am

    Hi Timothy! Thanks for sharing this. But there is something wrong with your kml which includes the updated areas. Pls check it out and link to the kml again

  2. nicoinazn says

    June 21, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    June KML isn’t working.

  3. Боби Димитров says

    June 22, 2016 at 6:57 am

    I think the proper link should lead to http://www.gearthblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Google-Earth-imagery-update-2016-06-18.kmz ?

  4. Timothy Whitehead says

    June 22, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    Thank you for letting me know. The link is now fixed.

  5. ben reuter says

    June 23, 2016 at 11:53 am

    Thanks Timothy!
    Sadly enough it’s only a minor update.
    Terraserver is more busy to renew interesting places.
    e.g. Rosyth with the new british carriers
    http://up.picr.de/25985955bx.jpg
    http://up.picr.de/25985956ab.jpg
    Dalian/China with the new Chinese carrier under construction
    http://up.picr.de/25985958vt.jpg
    and Ara Bay / Murmansk with Russian Sierra submarines
    http://up.picr.de/25985982gc.jpg
    It will need serveral month that google will follow (if ever)
    Cheers

  6. Tim says

    June 28, 2016 at 2:15 pm

    Hi Tim,

    I was wondering if you could add one more frame. I lost my house in that tornado, the last frame has my street but my house cut off. Is there a way you could send me a picture which would include my house? It’s just barely out of the frame to the south. Thanks

    • Timothy Whitehead says

      June 29, 2016 at 4:36 am

      The imagery is in Google Earth. Just switch to ‘historical imagery’ to see the older image.

  7. Abd El Rahman Mohammed says

    June 29, 2016 at 6:06 pm

    hi
    how i download the new map?
    for Arcmap.exe



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

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