Best 2 Google Earth Plugins for United States Weather

10th Jun 2009 23:25pm

Well after having a browse around I found these two plugins for Google Earth that seem to work really good and offer information from NWS (National Weather Service) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atomospheric Administration).

Total US Doppler Radar
This plugin gives you a (near) live picture of the whole of the United States' doppler readings, which update every 5 minutes (600 seconds). I myself have modified mine though as the original doppler picture has loads of white space, so to change it to a better image that doesn't have the white space, then do the following:

1) Download the plugin.
2) Rename the '.kmz' file so it ends in '.kmz.zip'
3) Unzip it and you should have a file called 'doc.kml'
4) Right-click it and open it with "Word Pad"
5) Find:

    <href>http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/Conus/RadarImg/latest.gif</href>

Replace with:

    <href>http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/Conus/RadarImg/latest_radaronly.gif</href>

6) Save the file, open Google Earth and go "File -> Open" and locate the file... wait a few seconds and it's done!

» Download Plugin (Use the link "Get File: Google Earth")

NWS Warnings
This plugin shows the bounderies and locations of the severe weather that is currently happening.

1) Download the plugin.
2) Open Google Earth and go "File -> Open", locate the file and you're done!

» Download Plugin (Use the Real-Time NWS Warnings "Get KMZ File" button)

There is also a Blitzortung.org plugin too that keeps track of lightning in Europe, which is located here ("Get File: Google Earth").

2 Comment(s) -:- Permalink

Views: 1,343 Tags: google earth, plugin, weather, doppler radar, warnings, noaa, blitzortung, lightning

25th Jun 2009 18:37

This is nice now google earth has launched two more plugins this is nice. But why only for US. I mean to say that can we use these plugins for other countries or not?