Maps Platform
Product updates, customer stories, and tips and tricks on Google Maps Platform
The Weather Channel brings real-time weather updates to users with Google Maps APIs
Monday, July 20, 2015
Posted by Chris Huff, Vice President of Mobile Development, The Weather Channel
Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Chris Huff, Vice President of Mobile Development at
The Weather Channel
. Read how The Weather Channel uses Google Maps APIs to power their popular Android app. The Weather Channel is just one of many customers who shared their story as part of our cross-country road trip,
Code the Road
.
We know from experience that the combination of weather, mapping and community input can result in ideas that keep people safe and informed. Our Android app goes far beyond basic weather forecasting, which is why we chose Google Maps. We use
Google Maps Android API
,
Google Maps JavaScript API
and ImageOverlays to place geodata, such as weather alerts, hurricanes, and storm tracks, and weather tiles, such as radar maps and clouds, on top of Google Maps.
Radar maps are one of the app’s main features, and we work hard to get them right. We get radar imagery from multiple sources and produce raster images from them. Then we take hundreds of the images and animate them in a frame-based animation sequence. The Google Maps Android API gives us overlays to place the animation on top of maps, and also lets us add additional objects such as pins and polygons to visualize lightning strikes or a storm’s direction. You can see an example below.
The more local weather reporting is, the more accurate it is; a thunderstorm may skip one neighborhood but hit another. So to improve accuracy and to build a community around our app, we’ve been working to make it more social. People send us information about weather near them, and we use the Google Maps Android API to add a pin to the map for each user-created report. Anyone can tap a pin to see the detailed report. Here’s an example of social weather reporting.
With more than 68 million downloads, the app has been a tremendous success. We get 2 billion requests for radar maps every year. There’s an old saying that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. We beg to disagree. With the Google Maps APIs we’re giving people detailed, useful, live information about the weather, and we believe that’s doing quite a bit.
As part of the Code the Road series we hosted the 24-hour hackathon event, “
Storm the Road: Hack for Safety with The Weather Channel and Google Maps
”, on June 23. The event gave developers an opportunity to come together to create a new app or feature for mobile or web that helps keep the public safe and informed.
Labels
5 Great Maps
ads
advertising
africa
Andorra
Android
App Engine
art
Australia
Autocomplete
Boston
brazil
Bruce Springsteen
Bulgaria
Campus Map
Chrome
City 24/7
Code for America
COM API
Computerlogy
creative advertising campaigns
Custom Map Types
design
developer
Developer Challenge
Developer stories
Directions API
Drawing Tools
Driving Directions
Earth
Earth API
Elevation API
environment
epungo
Estonia
Europe
Fab Friday
flash
Fusion Tables
GAE
games
GDAL
Gears
geo
Geodesic Lines
Germany
Gibraltar
GIS
Global Economy
gme
Google Analytics
Google App Engine
Google Earth
Google Earth API
Google I/O
Google Maps
Google Maps API
Google Maps Engine
Google Places API
Google Places API Developer Challenge
Google Street View API
government
Hackathon
Hamburg
heat map
heatmap
hiking
Hungary
iOS
JavaScript
jQuery
kenya
KML
Latitude API
Latvia
launch
Lithuania
local search
London
Mac
Map of the Week
maps
Maps API
Maps API for Flash
Maps Data API
Maps Zen
Marker Clusterer
Marketing
Mars
meetup
mobile
moca
modern art
More Than a Map
Morethanamap
Movies
Neighborhoods
New York City
Office Hours
Olympics
Panoramio
photos
Place Summaries
Places API
Plus
polygons
Premier
public transit
public transit layer
Python
real estate
rock
sao paulo
screencast
SketchUp
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Spatial Data Files
Static Maps API
street view
Styled Maps
Sydney
Track
traffic layer
Transportation
Tripline
Twitter
UN
United Nations
V3
Vancouver Olympics
visualizations
Volkswagen
VW
web
youtube
Archive
2018
Nov
Jul
Jun
May
Mar
Feb
2017
Nov
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feb
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Feed
Follow @GMapsPlatform
Follow
Google Maps Platform Website
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Follow