A few months back, Google added near-real time weather data, which included radars. Today, they’ve added coverage for a few more areas:
- Europe
- Canada
- Alaska
- Hawaii
- Puerto Rico
I really like the radars in Google Earth. Not only are they useful, but they’re pretty cool. They float a few miles above the surface of the earth, just the way actual clouds do.
Here are some pictures of the current radar in Alaska to show you what I mean:
To use the radars, simple enable the “Radar” option in the “Weather” layer, as shown below:


On the Western Slope of Colorado, Google Earth weather layers give me better predictive info. than the local weather man.
Question:
Where can I get the legend that explains the RADAR color spectrum?
Regards,
Jim Black
Lynx E&M LLC
The Google Earth radar overlay is pretty good. However, the rain displays as a flat surface hovering 20 miles above the surface of the earth giving a very distorted view of the rain.
What do the various colors represent in GoogleEarth Radar. I assume that green means rain, and that darker green represents heavier rain. What do gray, red, and purple represent?
Thanks – jon
Jon,
Basically, I was asking the same question and never got an answer…
If you find out, please post the answer.
Regards,
Jim Black
Google earth uses weather.com’s radar, you can find the legend on their website:
Three levels of green are severity of rain
White/grey are snow
Pinks are “ice/mix”
Yellow is fog
Red is severe storms
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USNY0181?lswe=buffalo%20ny&from=searchbox_localwx
Its raining cats and dogs in Dickinson Texas and I greatly appreciate finding an answer to my question about the color scheme of Google Earth weather radar display. Thank you all,
i wanna know the technology behind this google earth, to make a project called smart space cob(SMART CC).