• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth

  • Home
  • About
  • Basics
  • Links
  • Tips
  • 3D Models
  • Sightseeing
  • Videos

Weather

Tracking hurricane wind speeds in Google Earth

September 5, 2011

Back in 2006, we showed you a tool from Jeremy Cothran at the University of South Carolina that provided a ton of near real-time weather data from various sensors around the southeastern United States.
Jeremy has now taken that vast amount of data, and simplified it to highlight significant events among those sensors. In particular, it highlights wind gusts over 30 mph or wave heights over five feet. The result, when combined with other tools such as Google’s built-in satellite overlay, can be quite useful.

wind-speeds.jpg

The more significant events are shown using larger icons, making it easier to see where the heart of the action is. You can view it yourself by loading this KMZ file into Google Earth. You can also view the data using Google Maps, but it loses the label styling and time slider functionality.
In both cases, the data shown is from the past 24 hours, and is updated hourly with new information. Nice work, Jeremy!

Filed Under: Weather

The damage from Hurricane Irene

August 31, 2011

While Hurricane Irene didn’t strike the United States with as much force as many had predicted, it was still a substantial storm that claimed 54 lives and did more than $10 billion in damage.
GEB reader Noel has taken some of the imagery from NOAA’s Hurricane Irene Project Index Page and assembled them as image overlays in Google Earth. Some of the the imagery is quite striking, such as this image of a section of Highway 12 being washed away on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

road.jpg

Highway 12 is the only road that connects Hatteras Island to the mainland, and this destruction has left 2,500 residents stranded on the island. There is an emergency ferry now in place to shuttle emergency personnel to and from the island, and no injuries have been reported.
To see the file for yourself, simply download this KMZ file and you’ll be taken to the areas with this new imagery.

Filed Under: Sightseeing, Weather

More tools to help track Hurricane Irene

August 26, 2011

A few days ago we shared some tools to help you track Hurricane Irene in Google Earth. With the storm now bearing down on the east coast of the United States, we thought we’ve show you a few more ways to track its progress.
GEB Weather Tools
A great place to start is with our collection of Weather tools. While there are a lot of useful tools to be found in there, of particular interest is the hurricane tracking predictions you can find if you follow the following steps inside of the KMZ file:

  • Large Collection of Atlantic Weather Overlays
    • Tropical Atlantic Overlays
      • Hurricane Model Data
        • North Atlantic Basin
          • Hurricane Irene

geb-weather.jpg

Live Hurricane Hunter Data
A few years ago, we showed you the hurricane hunter recon data which is collected and produced by the folks at Tropical Atlantic. Their KMZ file is updated in near real-time during missions, and you can view historical data as well. Shown below is a run they did yesterday, showing wind speeds from various areas of the hurricane. You can click any of the colored barbs to view detailed statistics for that location at that time. The amount of data available through their system is quite staggering.
recon.jpg

Google Earth’s Built-in Tools
Finally, as we mentioned earlier this week, you can always use the tools built-in to Google Earth. The data isn’t as detailed as some of the other sources, but it’s easier to access to get a quick look at things. Under the “weather” layer you’ll find satellite and radar imagery, and enabling the “places” layer will reveal an icon on top of the hurricane which can be clicked for more information.
google-earth-satellite.jpg

As always, please let us know if you’re aware of any other great Google Earth-based tools for tracking Hurricanes, and we’ll be sure to pass along the information to our readers.

Filed Under: Weather

Hurricane Irene in Google Earth

August 24, 2011

Hurricane Irene, which has already done some serious damage to Puerto Rico, was recently captured in stunning high resolution by NASA’s Terra satellite as it heads toward the east coast of the United States.
[UPDATE: We’ve posted more tools for tracking Hurricane Irene]

irene.jpg

You can view the image on NASA’s Earth Observatory website, or view it in Google Earth using this KML file. Be aware the KML is loading the full 5 MB file from NASA’s server, as it’s amazingly sharp, so it’ll take a few moments to load.
To track the Hurricane and view its forecasted track, turn on your Places layer and an icon will appear over the Hurricane. Clicking that icon will give you access to details about the Hurricane, along with historical data and various projected paths. More details about this feature can be found in this post from a few months ago.
If you’re aware of other great tools to help track Irene and other 2011 hurricanes, leave a comment below and let us know.

Filed Under: Weather Tagged With: earth observatory, hurricane, irene, nasa

Weather features now in Google Maps, but still better in Google Earth

August 19, 2011

Google just added some great weather features to Google Maps, which you can read about on the Google Lat Long Blog. There are some cool features in there, and I’ll probably use it from time to time.
However, if you really want to dig into the weather, Google Earth is still your best bet. Not only does it include the features now found in Google Maps, but you have great features like cloud/radar animations, “sun” mode to show real-time global light and the combination of a few of those to make Earth look amazingly realistic from space.

realistic.jpg

A few months ago, we posted a detailed entry highlighting all of the great weather tools in Google Earth. Be sure to grab the weather tools KMZ file to be able to see everything in one place.

Filed Under: Weather

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to page 8
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 36
  • Go to Next Page »


Primary Sidebar

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
Twitter




Categories

  • 3D Models (792)
  • Applications (708)
  • Business (288)
  • Environment (353)
  • Flying (208)
  • GE Plugin (282)
  • Google Earth News (1,764)
  • Google Earth Tips (592)
  • GPS (136)
  • Navigation (227)
  • Network Links (214)
  • Sailing (121)
  • Science (499)
  • Sightseeing (1,903)
  • Site News (587)
  • Sky (67)
  • Sports (154)
  • Street View (50)
  • Tours (117)
  • Video (421)
  • Weather (180)

Get new posts by email

Get new posts by email:

Google Earth Satellites

Copyright 2005-© 2023 Frank Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

This blog and its author are not an official source of information from Google that produces and owns Google Earth Google and Google Earth are trademarks of Google Inc.. All image screenshots from Google Earth are Copyright Google. All other trademarks appearing here are the trademarks of their respective owners.