The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the place that I go to for all of my weather forecasts. I go to NOAA for two reasons. First, it doesn’t have all the hype and hoopla of local news stations. Second, I can get more specific information for where I live than I can find on the local news broadcasts.

Last night as I was checking the forecast for my town, I noticed for the first time, that I can get a KML from NOAA that will display the forecast in Google Earth. To further my amateur meteorology investigations, NOAA has additional KML layers that I can add to Google Earth. I can add files containing radar images, precipitation data, and wind speed data.

Applications for Education
To locate KML files of your local forecasts and radar images, visit NOAA.gov and enter your city and state. You will find the link to the KML file toward the bottom of the page.

Having students study radar images in Google Earth could be a useful way to introduce students to meteorology. If Google Earth isn’t available to you, you may want to use the experimental interactive forecasts for your area. The interactive forecasts are web based.