Once again we’re back at writing about Google Earth. In the past, we’ve written about trip planning in Google Earth and getting Topo maps in Google (can’t forget NASA’s Google Earth like Tool World Wind either). Well, the folks at Google have been hard at work the past year adding more tools to their globe trotting program and one the tools they quietly added should bring delight to the diehard skiers. What could that tool be? Weather of course!

If you don’t have it already, download the newest version of Google Earth here. Google Earth now has a new content layer called Weather with three sub layers called “Clouds,” “Radar,” “Conditions and Forecasts” and one “Information” link that provides a summary of where the data comes from and brief overview of how to use it. Included on “Information” link summary are two links that allow you to download time animations for the last 24 hours of clouds data and the last 6 hours of radar data respectively. You should definitely give these a try, they give you a great animation of clouds swirling over the globe creating a more realistic representation of our great planet.

They get “Radar” and “Conditions and Forecasts” information from Weather.com, which is updated every 15 minutes. You can zoom in and see conditions and temps from numerous cities around the world, and clicking on the temps should bring up an information bubble that displays the local forecast along with some other useful information. For the information on the “Clouds” layer, they get it from the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey who are regarded as some of the foremost satellite meteorologists in the world. According to Google, the information is a few hours off so what you’re seeing is what the clouds were doing two or three hours ago. For visual effect with the “Clouds” layer selected, zoom in until you fly through and then below the clouds. Once below the clouds, tilt your view as flat as you can (so you can see the ground and sky) and you should be able to look up and see the cloud cover above. Pretty cool!

Any Readers found any other great uses for Google Earth in your travels? Let us know in the comments.

Here are a few additional resources for Google Earth stuff:

• Google Earth Blog Weather announcement
• Best Storm Tracking and Weather Tools for Google Earth
• Most current, near-global image of earth available
• Video Showing Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth