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Google Earth weather layers being dropped

October 3, 2016

The Google Earth weather layers “Conditions and Forecast” and “Ocean Observations” have been broken for some time. We did a post on it in July this year, but at that time it had already been broken for several months. Google has now announced that it will be dropping the layers from Google Earth on October 10th, 2016.

Dropping the layers is certainly better than leaving them broken in Google Earth, as there is currently no indication that they are not displaying the correct information. What do our readers think of this move? Was the layer useful to you? Would a KML file with similar functionality be useful? Let us know what you think in the comments.


The Google Earth “Conditions and Forecast” and “Ocean Observations” weather layers.

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: Google Earth News, Weather Tagged With: weather

Reader Interactions






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. Rob M says

    October 3, 2016 at 12:01 pm

    I will definetly miss the temperatures as I do most of my travel planning with GE.
    The cloud layer will also be missed, tough not as much.
    Can anybody point me to a similar (not overloaded) KML?

    • Timothy Whitehead says

      October 3, 2016 at 12:39 pm

      Sorry if it was not clear in the post. The cloud layer is not set to be removed.

      • Rob M says

        October 3, 2016 at 12:46 pm

        Thanks for the follow up, I still do appreciate a recommendation for a temp replacement.

        • david brisby says

          January 21, 2017 at 5:17 pm

          i too miss temps very good when plan for trip needed

          • bruce says

            June 25, 2017 at 9:37 am

            yes I miss it. Very important to me when planning oversees vacations.

  2. Carey Stranahan says

    October 3, 2016 at 5:57 pm

    Noaa has good kml feeds at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/gis/kmlpage.htm

    • Rob M says

      October 4, 2016 at 11:14 am

      thank you for your suggestion, but NOAA is no replacement for me as it focuses only on on CONUS (e.g.:only 4 data points in central Europe, zero in Africa) and is exclusively in F. I am looking for Europe/Asia in degree C.
      Any other ideas?

  3. Elizabeth says

    October 8, 2016 at 11:31 am

    I’m confused, if they’re ‘dropped’ but not ‘removed’ then what is happening

    • Timothy Whitehead says

      October 8, 2016 at 1:34 pm

      Two of the layers will be removed: “Conditions and Forecast” and “Ocean Observations”
      The “Clouds” and “Radar” layers will not be removed.
      The two layers to be removed have not been working for many months. The two layers that will remain still work and should continue to work.

  4. Stephen says

    October 10, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    Google are Killing Google Earth bit by bit. Arguably the best site on the whole of the internet. They have killed off ‘Traffic’ are in the process of killing Panoramio, the ‘Photos layer’ total paralysis due 4th Nov 2016, now the Weather layer these are only the layers I am aware of. Watch out GE your terminal health is in doubt.

    • Steve says

      January 15, 2017 at 4:53 am

      This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. There is no better product out than this fantastic effort. I remember touring the planet and being able to watch a video of the location from the youtube layer; gone. I thoroughly enjoyed highlighting the panoramio layer to easily see photos of the current Earth location; gone. I always checked the “conditions and forecasts” layer to easily see what it was currently like somewhere else; gone. Gone before there is anything to replace them with. There is no better way to assimilate information than by starting geographically, but now this task is much more difficult with disappearing layers. I realize mobile devices and google maps has become more of a priority, but angled viewing provides a “fly-to” realism other products cannot. When you consider the importance of mapping throughout history, this product is practically a wonder of the world. Please do not let it slide into disrepair for ANY reason!

  5. David says

    October 15, 2016 at 10:27 pm

    the weather feature for Google Earth was the only reason that I have Google Earth installed on my computer in the first place I travel so temperatures where I’m going cloud cover rainfall Etc are all important to my travel and much easier to get than any other service… My suggestion fix it thank you

  6. Robert Molanus says

    October 18, 2016 at 12:36 pm

    Agree with David!
    I miss the weather information!
    Please back again….

  7. Lanny says

    November 2, 2016 at 3:56 pm

    Absolutely agree! The weather layer on Google Earth was among the best features. Google Earth why are you degrading the value of this great product you had. You also did away with the flyover version in later versions of Google Earth. That’s why I stick with Google Earth 6.2. Flyover was a great way to take simulated flyovers of the Earth from a global perspective and zooming down to the neighborhood level. Google Earth should do everything it can to replace the temperature feeds. I find it hard to believe that a multi billion dollar company can’t find a solution to this problem. BRING THE GOOD STUFF BACK!!!

  8. Steve says

    November 6, 2016 at 3:04 am

    I used google earth because of the temperature layer.

  9. Gayle says

    November 19, 2016 at 8:46 am

    The Clouds Layer isn’t much use if you don’t know which direction the wind is blowing.

  10. Hans Engström says

    November 22, 2016 at 9:35 am

    Here is a working map with temperature. http://www.prognosen.se/metar_gmap.php
    (I also miss Google Earths temp.)

  11. B. Robinson says

    December 15, 2016 at 1:28 pm

    I have friends and relatives all over the globe and when calling them on the phone it was always nice to talk about the weather TEMPS etc. Please find a way to bring them back.

  12. Stan says

    December 17, 2016 at 3:29 pm

    I loved knowing the temps. We do roads trips I call ‘quest for warmth’ in Spring in Fall. I look at temps around my area. And do a road trip to the place it is showing the warmest trends. It can sometimes be a 30 degree difference in an hour drive. I don’t know of any other way of finding the temps all around me without Google Earth temp layer. First the pictures were taken away and now this. Google Earth isn’t much use any longer. Dumb move.

  13. Nazeji says

    December 26, 2016 at 12:37 am

    Here’s a nice site that shows in a color map (and you can click, and click and drag to show + move around a marker that shows exact numbers at that point) current and future (a little past a week) Temperatures, Wind + direction and speed, Humidity, and more. It also shows Clouds, Ozone, Thunderstorms (Clouds -> CAPE), Rain, Snow, Ocean Waves, Ocean Currents, Ocean Temperatures, and more.

    https://www.windytv.com/

  14. Stocazzo says

    January 4, 2017 at 11:29 am

    Please put weather forecast and temperature back again.

  15. Jim Carpenter says

    January 5, 2017 at 3:03 pm

    Is there another program equal or better than the weather which has been dropped?

  16. Vesna says

    January 7, 2017 at 2:21 pm

    Please put weather forecast and temperature back again

  17. Chris Wills says

    January 21, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    G.Earth is becoming more useless by the day. Someone in your vast organisation must be able to fix it! If not, save money and fire them!

  18. Tom Pouse says

    February 13, 2017 at 2:54 pm

    Try https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic/loc=15.420,8.156 for temperatures wind etc

  19. Eric says

    February 15, 2017 at 12:40 pm

    I was a regular user of radar and temp features and miss them a lot

  20. BP Lim says

    February 22, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    I really miss it, hopefully in a near future Google Earth could install back this very useful function ☺

  21. Greg says

    February 28, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    Sorry to see it go. I used it to plan trips. Often winter is bad time to travel in the upper western states, and I used it to check weather forecast in towns near high passes. It was also helpful when planning hiking and camping trips.
    I can still check on those places, but it is much easier having it all on the map. A kml would work fine if there is one available.

  22. Tom Evensen says

    March 1, 2017 at 5:55 am

    I really miss the temperature on Google Earth. I hope it this temperature layer can be added again in the future.

  23. Lapi says

    March 12, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    The GE is destroyed… the best usabel and important parts of tihis system are killed… WHY??? The weather layer and the panoramio was the most frequentated funcionts, but dilettant idiots close all of this.. its shame, its unacceptable… why this stupid dilettant idiots working now ing GE??? Its madness…

  24. Steve Phillips says

    March 27, 2017 at 11:29 am

    This is sad. With all the things that have been removed GE is of very little use now.

  25. Robert says

    March 31, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    I never noticed it not working… sounds like bullshit to me. Just another stupid move from Joogle.

  26. Rich D. says

    April 5, 2017 at 4:04 pm

    I also do not understand GE’s comment that weather was “not working”. I know for US & Canada that temps were always within a degree or two of local weather reports. I think GE’s plan is to phase out all useful data then suddenly “rediscover” all these features an introduce a for fee version. Feels like Google Earth “Platinum” version is in our future!

    • George says

      April 17, 2017 at 4:06 pm

      You are likely correct. pay to play

  27. alison moncreiff says

    May 13, 2017 at 6:24 am

    Here in Scotland I found the rainfall, with intensity, very useful indeed & really miss it for planning outdoor events. It was more reliable than anything else..

  28. mapper says

    May 31, 2017 at 4:09 am

    it was very usefull, very bad they removed it

  29. John McGee says

    June 9, 2017 at 6:14 pm

    My next move is to remove Bungle Earth from my computer. It is now almost useless for my purposes, I used it primarily for worldwide weather observation. Unfortunately, Google is not likely to consider what its user’s really want, only what will improve the bottom line (like every other greedy corporate entity)

  30. Mohammed says

    July 20, 2017 at 1:29 am

    Teachers found it very useful to teach about world weather.

  31. Ty McDowell says

    July 22, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    Put the temperatures back in, however way it is possible to do it, ie KML file.

    The temperature and ocean conditions are critical planning tools for outdoor activities and are used by millions of people.

  32. jerry sullivan says

    August 7, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    The weather features were very useful and welcome, I drove a truck and needed to know what was expected where I was headed.



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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