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Google Maps has many layers but it’s just gotten perhaps one of its more important layers since traffic patterns: weather.
This makes total sense. People often use Google Maps to plot travel courses for pleasure and business.
One of the main factors that influence travel is weather, so the lack of this layer on Google Maps has actually been a glaring hole.
The new Google Maps weather layer displays current temperatures and conditions around the globe.
To use this layer, users must hover over the widget in the upper right corner of Google Maps and select the weather layer from the list, which also includes traffic, photos, labels, and webcams.
Here’s my current local weather reading, with information from weather.com, listed at left and on the map:
Note the various icons to denote sun, clouds and rain, day and night. The U.S. Naval Research Lab provides cloud cover data. When I click into my hometown on Maps I can see current and max temperatures, humidity and wind conditions.
We’re expected to get rain all weekend, according to the forecast:
Glad I took the family to an amusement park yesterday!
When I look at the temperature listings for my hometown and those in the surrounding area, I can also choose the units of temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit, or wind speed from miles per hour to kilometers per hour:
Before dipping into it yourself, see how it works in this YouTube video: